GhostbustersSedgwick Chronicles
by MaddHatter12
Summary: the daughter of the owner of the Sedgewick hotel meets the Ghostbusters during their first job and decides it would be fun to interact with the group. Especially when her best friend Dana runs into a little supernatural trouble. RayxOC
1. Prologue

be nice, I've never typed stories before and uploaded and gotten good reviews XD

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Prologue:

With hair bobbing in the wind, Linda Sedgewick walked along the steps of the library with her father and step-mother.

"Honey I don't know why you insist on coming to the library, it's just a waste of time! I mean you could be learning about how to uhm…might I say, run the family business?" Mr. Sedgewick emphasized as Linda sped up past them, further up the steps carrying a stack of books.

"But I don't WANT to run the family business. Besides, Tony would LOVE to do it for me!" she mentioned looking over her shoulder as she pushed the door open to the library, her step-mother rolling her eyes.

"But Tony is in the Bahamas and I don't want to ruin my precious boys trip by making him work! And we know that you'll love working the hotel!" she smiled clapping her hands together as Linda pushed her books onto the checkout counter.

"How do you know what I like? I don't even like looking over everyone's work when you two are out, I went to college to study archeology and mythology. Not the sociology of running a hotel business—thank you—so I don't think I'd really 'like' taking over the family business. Ever." Linda answered with a snobbish tone.

She walked through the maze of tables and around the bookshelves, stopping to look at a group of books on archeology and mythology. She flipped through it and closed it after reading a line or two. Linda lifted her hand to her chin and scratched it as her parents followed silently.

Linda grabbed a book, examining the spine of it and smiling. She led her parents over to a table and lightly set the book on top of it.

"Why are we here exactly?" her father grumbled, crossing his arms in discontent and Linda just looked back at him.

"For research, I'm writing a paper about parapsychology and how it's linked to some archeology dig sites." Linda said exasperated as she noticed a tall, lanky man with glasses rummaging around the tables, with a hand-held machine.

It blinked red and green lights, the rectangular machine had long wings on the side that made it look like a remote control plane. Linda stood up straight and cocked her head at him. Two more men walked up behind him as he listened to the table with what seemed like a stethoscope.

One man made ghoulish noises and tapped the table with a book which he then slammed violently, causing the tall man to cringe and almost lose his footing. The man with the book chuckled a bit and started speaking with the other two.

"O what hooligans, let's just leave this place. Let's check out that book of yours and we can leave." Her mother said in the same snobbish tone Linda made before as she scrunched her nose at the men disgustedly. Linda rolled her eyes.

"Alright Collette." She mumbled and closed the book. She looked over at the men again as she led her parents along the rows of tables, they walked the opposite way as her, towards the books. The way she wanted to go.

Linda loved books, she loved knowledge, and yet she was born into a family and raised with another family that was more….physical…then mental. Meaning they'd rather HAVE the green then think of all the different things it could do. These men were lucky enough to be interested and something and actually be able to research it. A man in a teal shirt finally noticed her staring and stared back with a grin on his face from a joke Peter had told.

The man turned slightly pink as she didn't retreat from staring and his smile faded a bit. Linda looked down at the ground as she turned a bit pink as well, her cheeks going a bit fuchsia, and she smiled sweetly until looking back up at where he was. The three were gone.

"Dear walk FASTER. We need to get home." Her father persisted as the librarian checked out the book.

They stepped outside with Linda clutching the book to herself, her parents peering at the back of her head, Linda feeling their eyes seeping through her. She stopped and turned to her parents with her eyes closed.

"Okay…what's with the looks?" she sighed and stared at them as they looked at each other casually.

"You seemed to be staring at those three quite oddly. Like you were jealous…that's not quite like you." They said walking past her, carefully looking at each step.

Linda stared at them oddly now and chased after them, being careful not to trip.

"Not quite like me? They're able to go in there and read! I can barely check out a book without you two glaring at me every step I take."

"Dear. We have everything they don't. We could just BUY you a library." Her father said simply and patted her shoulder, leading his wife further down the steps.

Linda stared at them, mouth agape and her eyebrows knitted together angrily.

"But that's not what I want! I want to travel the world! Discover something! Be normal! Experience something we can't experience here!" she cried out slightly as she stopped them in their tracks.

She sighed and looked at her parents as they gloomily glared at her. Linda put her hands on her hips, still holding the book between her arm and her side and she looked around trying to think of what next to say. Soon her attention was to the ground as her parents walked past her, leaving her stand there alone.

"We'll see you at the hotel." They called as they left her there with people walked past her normally; every once in a while a person would stare for a second.

The doors to the library burst open and the same three men from before rushed out onto the stairs, jumping every other step.

"Excuse me! Sorry! Run!!!" they yelled to each other, dodging passerby's. Linda snapped her head around as they sprinted past her, the librarian following close behind.

"Did you see it?!" he called.

"We'll get back to you on that!!!" The man in the green shirt called back, staring straight forward, never once turning to anyone.

"Did they see….what?" Linda muttered to herself as she stared down at her book.

'Legend of Parapsychology.'


	2. Parapsychology?

_One step at time_, Linda thought to herself. _One step at a time._

She practically dragged her feet across the concrete as her shoulders slumped and her lips pouted, believing no one could see her look so down. Her heels scraped against the pavement, making horrible noises that actually attracted more attention.

Linda swung her arms forward and backwards, her parapsychology book dangling from her fingers.

"'We could just buy you a library! We could just get you everything! But not as much as Tony—he's so cute and he's our baby boy and meh meh meh!'" Linda mocked silently to herself, trying to make her voice as nasally as possible so she could somehow make her step-mother seem that much less enjoyable.

Angrily she stomped her way through the courtyard in front of a University, walking around blocks of raised gardens with shrugs and trees.

She sat herself down unpleasantly on one of the blocks, her stature just as unprofessional as before as her purse slid from her shoulder to her elbow, her book in her lap.

_I am such a brat. Why do I even care what they think…they're just…stupid. _She growled internally, kicking her legs, pouting again. Acting like this even proved she was acting like a brat.

Linda knew that she was raised in a wealthy family, and so being waited on hand and foot all her life made her irresponsible and bratty when it came to getting things that she wanted. But in some situations that worked for her. But, she also learned when she got to college that that wasn't the right way to act. Now that she had been home from college for a couple of years she couldn't help but try to drop her old ways, especially when she's around the people who raised her that way.

So, to calm her nerves a drop her inner subject of awful parents and bratty behaviors, she closed her eyes, lifted her hand to simulate wafting up into her nose, she took in a deep breath and sighed.

And she began on her book, maybe reading THAT would take her mind off of everything.

The book was opened to a random page towards the beginning. Linda thought she wouldn't need the table of contents.

"THE ETHERIC PLANE", she read. She quirked a brow, looking around to notice if anyone heard her.

_What the hell is that? _Her thoughts huffed. _Well I know that AETHER is related to the Prana Principle…and that's uh…the life-sustaining force of all beings. Whatever…._

Linda read on, and she learned that if it's possible, you could touch the etheric plane. _Which means it MUST have to do with ghosts if it's this book! DUH. _Linda sighed.

With a shrug, she flipped through the book again until she got to "IONIZATION".

She rolled her eyes knowing she may not understand what that is either; she was never that good with chemistry or physics.

I remember that an Ion is a molecule or an atom with an unequal amount of protons and electrons…did they have neutrons?…no. And I remember from English that…ization is put at the end of a noun to make it…the process of something? So…the process of making an atom or molecule into an ion? That sounds right.

The book then read that every ectoplasmic being should have the same ionization rate. _Coming to the conclusion that ghosts should all have the same ionization._ Linda read, quite impressed, maybe even over impressed.

_If that's true…you could even catch one! That'd be amazing. _Linda thought, actually verbally giggling to herself in fascination. She could feel people staring, so she closed the book and stood up, straightening her dress and scurrying away from the spot where she had sat.

She opened the book again, looking over her shoulder at the people who were staring at her. They had turned away so she glued her eyes back to the book to read more.

To be honest, she was more interested in reading the book for fun then comparing ways it could pertain to archeology dig sites.

She would occasionally look up to make sure she wouldn't bump into anything, otherwise she would scan a page, turn it, scan the next page and so on. She definitely didn't notice what was behind her because she would've recognized the three men walking out of the university.

One man, the tallest with glasses broke off from the three to go off wherever he needed to go and the other two just stuffed their hands in their pockets as they kept at level with stairs, while Linda walked in step with them 20ft below.

The men had stopped and sat down, the man with long dark coat jumped up on a concrete wall and pulled out a bottle of liquor, passing it back and forth with the man in the greenish teal shirt.

As Linda walked below she heard them speaking.

"Personally I liked the University! They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've worked in the private sector…they expect results." The man in the greenish shirt complained, pacing, the lounging man handing him the bottle as he jumped off the wall.

"For whatever reason, Ray, call it fate, call it luck, call it _karma_. I believe everything happens for a reason." The man said to the man now called "Ray".

Linda just sort of giggled to herself, shaking her head as she turned to page. She zoned out of their conversation as she walked up the steps to their level. The Sedgewick hotel was down the street and she had to get up the stairs unless she wanted to go around the building and make the walk longer.

She read the book again as she got closer to "Ray" and his unnamed friend who had stopped walking. They were now speaking of money and opening up a business.

"I believe we were destined to get thrown out of this dump!"

"For what purpose?" the man named Ray demanded.

"To go into business for ourselves!" the man said with a large, over-exagerated shrug and and an equally large swig of alcohol.

Linda now wanted to look away from her book, but she didn't want it to be obvious that she was eavesdropping. _Going into business for themselves…lucky ducks._ She thought jealously.

"The ecto-containment system that Spengler and I have in mind is going to require a load of grant-decapitilization."

_Ecto? Are they talking about ghosts? Contain yourself Linda…contain yourself. _Linda begged herself to stay calm.

"How are we going to get the money?" Ray asked, finishing his own sip of the alcohol just as Linda passed.

The other man, who Ray called Peter watched as she past, his eyes sliding up and down her body.

"Peter? Pete." Ray muttered as Linda turned another page of her book.

"Eyes to yourself." Linda called back at them, not looking away from the book. Peter stood back up straight, pushing the bottle to his lips and shaking his head at Ray.

"….I don't know." He said simply.

Linda smirked as she started to cross the street, causing taxis to stop and honk angrily.

_They're never going to get anywhere. _She judged, a little too quickly I might add.


	3. Hotel Competitors

It had been two days since Linda had looked at the parapsychology book, and two days since she had seen any of the three scientists from the library and University. She knew that if they were truly hell bent on starting a business she would've seen some sort of ad or saw them around town renovating a building or what not.

So, like always, Linda just sat behind the greeter's desk at the Sedgewick hotel. A tall, thin man stood at the computer, typing up random things and constantly writing things down in a logbook. He had a thin mustache and a very puckered face, like he was sucking on a lemon. His left eyebrow always raised. He was a very pointed man.

Linda sat in a chair on wheels, her feet up on the lower desk, as she read a magazine. She was hidden behind the taller desk that was meant for the pointed man, for the people who STOOD behind the desk.

"Ms. Sedgewick, I don't know why you insist on sitting down. Don't you believe that the people would want to see your smiling face? Especially when a critic could come in at any time and look for good employee attitudes?" the man said with a hiss in his voice.

Linda just lifted her eyes to look at him, not moving her head. She just glared and looked back down at the magazine.

"If you really don't approve. You could've just said so." She sighed and the man also sighed, letting the air blow out through his nostrils, causing a whistling sound.

"I only say it because, yes I disapprove, but your parents are also walking this way." He said lifting his shoulders as he took in another breath, typing on his computer again.

Hearing the word parents caused her fling her feet off the counter and stand up, dropping the magazine to the floor and kicking it under the desk. She lifted up her hands and intertwined her fingers, setting them on the counter as she smiled, her parents just arriving at the desk.

"Oh my dear! I didn't see you there!" her step-mother gasped slightly, chuckling with a smile, covering her heart with her hand as though she was that startled.

"Yes I'm sorry. I dropped something." She said simply, her nose scrunched as she just continued to smile. Her father stared at her oddly and set his bag down on the counter with a thump.

There was silence between the floor and Linda tapped her fingers together, looking around awkwardly, biting her lip impatiently. She tapped her toe against the ground as well, causing a constant 4/4 beat that echoed through the slightly empty lobby. She looked between both of her parents before finally opening her mouth to speak.

"SO…where did you both go?" she asked, hoping to start up a conversation that could last until they wanted to leave.

"Oh, I'm glad you asked." Her father chimed in, Linda realizing that he was waiting for her to ask this ever since he set his bag down on the counter.

Linda pressed her lips together and scrunched her nose again. Trying to smile with her mouth closed as she tried her best to perk her ears and listen to the story.

"We were actually at the bank. Withdrawing some cash." Her father said with a sly smile, one eyebrow raised at Linda's step-mom who smiled just as slyly.

Now Linda seemed worried. Her parents don't withdraw cash. And if they did, they never told Linda about it. She believed that they didn't trust her. What a surprise. Linda kept that same, closed-mouthed smile with her eyes wide and her eyebrows knitted together, making her look somewhat disturbing and a bit angry looking. Like some bull on Saturday morning cartoons.

"…. Why?" she said, finally shrugging and shaking her head. The pointed mans lip kind of twitched as he tried to slow down his typing to listen.

Her stepmother looked at her father keeping the sly smile. Her father began to open his mouth when her stepmother beat him to the punch and burst out the answer like some overfilled balloon.

"We're going to visit Tony in the BAHAMAS!" she screamed, her excitement getting the best of her as she began jumping up and down. Her tight blonde hair didn't budge an inch on her head though. Linda didn't know why they found going to the Bahamas so interesting. When she was 15 they took Tony, who was 10 at the time, to visit Vietnam DURING the war, because they wanted to "see the sights". That was in 1973.

Linda only let her mouth drop open because they were basically leaving her here so they could go and visit Tony. After she had told them she didn't like taking care of the place.

"Well—wait—why? How long?" she stuttered, her breath quickening as she thought of all the random answers they could come up with.

Her father pushed a piece of hair out of his face and stoked his beard as he really thought about how to explain the reason.

"Hm…your mother—"

"Stepmother." Linda corrected and she thought she actually saw a glare from her stepmother.

"—yes. But Colette got the call that Tony had, shall I say, MET someone!" he said with a hint of pride, like Tony finding a girl was something special. Linda rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Yeah, and?"

"When he called, he actually said—"

"HE'S ENGAGED!" Colette screamed with joy, jumping up and down again and Linda's mouth dropped even further, she was sure that her jaw actually broke when it hit the lower counter.

"En—engaged? How can he be engaged he's been in the Bahamas for FOUR DAYS!" she gaped as she ran one of her hands through her hair, just starting to process the idea of him getting married.

"I KNOW! Isn't it exciting—I'm going to go pack!" Colette giggled and ran to the elevator.

All she could do was turn to her father with the same distressed face.

"Engaged? And you're OKAY with that?" she whispered, practically hissed like a snake, her anger peeking through the screen of well-behaved mannerisms. Her father just shrugged.

"It's about time he got himself a good lady. But don't worry, we'll only be gone a week, week and a half…TWO weeks at most. They're getting married early next week!" he said, his tone still triumphantly proud. He spun on his heels and continued to walk to the elevator.

Linda gasped and ran around the desk, making sure to watch her feet so she wouldn't trip. She tried her best to try and catch up with him, especially in heels.

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" she growled, her voice echoing until her father finally stopped and turned around. She caught up with him and turned to face him.

"What do you mean he's getting married next week? When did he call you about this?" she asked setting her hands on her hips.

"Colette said he called about it the night after he arrived!"

"He WHAT? THAT SOON?" she gasped and her father looked around before lifting up his hand to make her quiet down.

She sucked in a breath and growled, closing her eyes tightly shut.

"Okay, okay…why didn't you tell me about this before? I would've had more time to get things together and prepare for someone to take care of the hotel while we're gone." She said shrugging. She was a bit more angry, finding out that her brother found a gal the first night and proposed and that he parents failed to tell her, but she was willing to forgive them as long as they gave her time to pack and get things ready for them to leave.

But her fathers face proved her hopes wrong when he looked at her sadly, and a bit awkwardly.

"Well, honey that's why we didn't tell you! Because…YOU'RE going to be taking care of the hotel." He said shrugging. That's when Linda's eyes grew 3x their original size. The deep sky blue eyes that she had inherited from her mother were now starting to turn red with rage. More like from tears.

"Excuse me?" she muttered. She was more surprised about this than the fact that her brother was getting married before her (she was sure it wouldn't last though).

Her father just shrugged.

"Well, we already bought the tickets and we know that you running the hotel for a while would be a good learning experience. Me and your mother will be leaving in the next two days." He said simply before taking a step closer to the elevator.

Linda just stood there shocked, absolutely shell-shocked.

The ding of the elevator bell didn't even snap her out of it. Her father stepped inside and turned to face look at her through the doors. He smiled happily and sighed.

"I knew you'd understand." He grinned as the doors started to close.

She heard them sliding through there grooves until her fathers hand reached out and they opened again.

"Oh by the way…guess who was at the bank when we arrived? I'm pretty sure it was the three boys that were at the library when we went however many days ago. They had apparently just taken out a huge loan to start a business. I want you to keep an eye on them…they might be trying to start a hotel business. You don't have too much to worry about, I know that they can't compare to us. Love you baby girl." He said kissing his fingers and sending it to her, the doors finally closing.

Linda Sedgewick was now officially depressed.


	4. New Perspective

**This is now watching the Ghostbusters, not literally from the beginning but from after they got fired and Linda walked by.**

**I thought that adding more of the Ghostbusters into the story (before they all actually came face to face with Linda) would actually be good.**

**To stay on the story and not focus on Linda, cause she can't always be there if she doesn't personally know them before-hand or is "related to one of them in some way".**

**Enjoy! **

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To Ray Stantz, resident of Manhattan, now ex-University worker, his best friend Peter sounded like a crazy man. The two of them, including their dear friend Dr. Egon Spengler had all been fired from their jobs at the University. And here, in the courtyard of that said University, Ray and Peter stood facing one another, passing liquor back and forth.

Peter had just finished explaining that everything happens for a reason, that they were fired out of luck, or karma or fate. With his arm wrapped around Ray's shoulder, he had lead him further away from the University, like trying to take him away from the memories.

"I believe it was our destiny to get thrown out of this dump!"

_Dump? This place is like Caesar's Palace to us! _Ray thought, not with an eye roll, but a suddenly worried expression. He seemed pained to hear his favorite place called a dump. Not only that, but the place that practically clothed, and fed them. Like some new, adoptive parent.

"But for what purpose?" Ray emphasized, taking his turn at drinking out of the brown bottle.

"To go into business for ourselves." Peter answered simply, letting Ray hold out the liquor bottle before he would snatch it back.

Now this idea? Seemed well thought-out. There were many opportunities for them to take, including the ghost business of course. But if they couldn't get anywhere with that, Ray really hoped he could still play his harmonica that he had buried somewhere in his belongings back inside of his now emptying office. And he was sure that Egon could get somewhere with his hypothesis' about how temperature and room set up change someone's mood under stress conditions. And Peter? He was sure he could do something….

Ray would rather worry about his ghostly future. Professionally, of course.

Unknowingly, Ray grabbed the bottle and took a sip before saying: "The ecto-containment system that Egon and I have in mind is going to take a load of grant-decapitalize." Ray admitted with a shrug and a nervous chuckle, a smile playing at his lips. Peter began nodding as he took the bottle back, biting his bottom lip, his face scrunched up as if he was planning on bobbing his head to some rock song, knowing that Ray was considering his suggestion.

Peter stuck the bottle to his lips as Ray began again, a realization hitting him.

"But where are we going to get that kind of money?" he asked, feeling a little down trodden, as if he suddenly attained bipolar disorder and didn't know what to feel at that moment.

Unfortunately, Peter wasn't paying attention. As always, it seemed. Instead, he was staring at a woman who approached slowly, her nose stuck in a book. By the way she tried to not to turn her eyes at Peter, Ray could tell she noticed him staring.

His head was turning from Peter to the woman, first he'd look to Peter, then say his name, then turn back to the girl and notice something different about her. First he noticed that she was dressed a little too professionally to be carrying around the book that she was carrying. A large, cream book with gold writing and designs all along the spine and cover.

That was the second thing he noticed, she was reading a book about Parapsychology. He never knew anyone (or any GIRL) that liked parapsychology. The final thing he noticed was that she was…well…as he would say, the prettiest thing since he first discovered glow-in-the-dark ectoplasmic residue. Nice, bouncy black hair, smooth looking, and even though her eyes were hidden, he could tell they were blue. A beautiful blue. A memorable blue. She seemed familiar, like he had seen her earlier that day.

But he was getting caught up in himself. He turned to Peter as she finally passed the two of them.

"Peter!" he finally exclaimed, but that wasn't what broke Peter's attention. The girl had said something to him that made him snap out of it.

So Peter shot his head back at Ray, his eyes wide and the bottle still stuck to his lips.

"I don't know." He simply answered.

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"You're never gonna regret this Ray!" Peter yelled triumphantly, pushing Ray out of the bank with one hand on his shoulder, patting it excitedly. Egon simply followed them, carrying his calculator, typing in numbers and symbols that he believed necessary.

Ray's face clearly showed he was regretting it.

"My parent's left me that house…I was BORN there!" Ray exclaimed sadly, his fingers tightening around the manilla folder as they didn't notice an older couple walking towards the bank. They both wore furry coats, carried brief-cases and looked very uptight. They were actually sneering at the three of them. That was the least of their worries.

"You're not gonna lose the Ray, EVERYBODY has three mortgages nowadays." Peter said, waving his hand in front of his face, like with a swipe of his hand the idea of having three mortgages would be painted in front of them.

"But at 19%? You didn't even bargain with the guy!" Ray complained, sounding overly stressed.

Unbeknownst to them, Egon had fallen behind, and the uptight couple had heard enough and had gone inside the bank, muttering to one another. Egon jogged to catch up and held the calculator out in front of Ray.

"Ray, for your information, the interest rate alone for the first five years is ninety-five thousand dollars." He said calmly with a smooth, collected stare at his friend. Not seeming worried, but not seeming very hopefully about the money situation.

He let out a long sigh, closing his eyes tight, even though he didn't believe he could produce any tears. Hopefully, they can find a place to start any sort of business before they spent any of this new money.

_Life couldn't get worst, not any worse then it seems to be getting. But with the career we're going after, NOTHING can go wrong! Of course not. _Ray thought to himself, feeling a little triumphant.

He knew that he wouldn't have any sort of motivation until he knew they had everything they needed.


	5. Definitely NOT a Hotel business

**Now it's time to get to SOME good stuff! Maybe…getting closer to some…social interaction? :D**

**Hope you like how I snuck in some stuff into the plot and to this…general part of the story.**

**Enjoy!**

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As quietly as they could, Linda's parents snuck out of their bedroom in the wee hours of the morning. They planned on leaving early that morning, seeing as how Linda thought they were leaving the day after this.

Two days prior, Larry and Colette Sedgewick had announced to their daughter that her brother Tony was to be married in the Bahamas. They had promised to leave in the next three days, but did not say exactly when. Not wanting her to get upset again, they planned on leaving while she was asleep to assure that she could not interfere with their leaving.

They were sure she would try.

But unknown to them, she would watch them leave, and she would say something, but she wouldn't try to stop them.

In her head, Linda had been thinking of the pros of her parents leaving, including having time to herself. Since she would be in charge, she would give the orders to have everyone else take of everything while she went off to do what she wanted. She didn't have to run the hotel directly from inside. This is why Linda's parents thought she got into college, because she thought out situations. But it was because she inherited an intellectual gene that hadn't been passed down for a few generations. Obviously.

So as Larry and Colette giggled to themselves as they tip-toed through the white living room of their suite on the top floor of the Sedgewick, one swiveling chair spun around and the side lamp turned on.

They both jumped and saw Linda sitting in the chair, arms and legs crossed. She looked like she was recreating a scene from a horror movie. They stared at her shocked as they tried not to drop their bags.

"…darling! What are you doing awake—its—4 in the morning!" her dad chuckled and Linda nodded.

"I couldn't sleep. But I should be asking you the same question. Not planning to leave early are you?" she asked sweetly and standing up and walking to them, staring at their bags and large heavy coats, ready for travel. Colette just chuckled and messed with her hair, which didn't need messing with.

"Our flight was…able to get an earlier time. You know how fast planes travel nowadays. How they're so trustworthy. And…what not." Larry laughed joyously and Linda nodded, pressing her lips together.

She just shrugged and played with the strings on her robes while saying, "Alrighty. Well have fun. Send Tony my regards." She smiled, turning to walk back to her bedroom.

Colette looked at Larry, somewhat shocked that she didn't go off on them. Larry just shrugged and continued to push Colette towards the stairs. When they reached the door and Colette had officially stuffed her furry self through the small door frame, Larry turned back to say one last thing.

"Have a wonderful time managing the hotel my dear. Oh! And I must remind you about something—" he called and Linda let a large bubble of air through her nose before she turned around with a smile.

"Yes daddy?"

There was silence, as if he was finding the right words to say something sentimental.

"Don't forget that…you need to keep an eye out for those boys we spoke to you about a day ago. I heard that they used their loan to buy that abandoned fire house yesterday!" he laughed and Linda lifted her eyes to the ceiling, quickly, so as not to anger her father. Colette had stormed back in to grab Larry's bag and put them on a cart, suggesting that they should leave soon. But Colette had decided to add to their mockery of the fire house.

"I don't know HOW they're going to manage a hotel through a FIRE-HOUSE. That fire-house is the size of our kitchen here! But just make sure they don't try anything funny! We don't want to come home to find those three Neanderthals overpowering our hotel and every other chain from a rusty old fire-house." She laughed and Larry snickered along with her. He stepped up to the door as Colette disappeared through it, the clang of the heavy bags dropping on the cart making a loud echo throughout the quiet hotel.

Linda just continued to nod through the whole thing.

"You're going to miss your flight. You better get going."

_I doubt they're Neanderthals. _She thought to herself, pushing hair out of her face and crossing her arms as her dad blew her a kiss and shut the door.

There was silence. It was eerie, and yet to Linda it was peaceful, knowing that those loud-mouth parents of hers wouldn't be walking through the entire hotel for 2 whole weeks. Linda began to smile to herself and she sprinted into her room to get ready for the day.

* * *

It was now noon and everything seemed to be going fine. Surprisingly, Linda hadn't left the hotel yet. She still sat in the same seat, reading a different magazine, with her feet still perched on the counter as the same pointed man typed on the computer.

The lobby was surprisingly empty, because either no one wanted to leave their rooms or no one wanted to come in and get a room. Linda finished the magazine and sat up to stretch, feeling a little bored. She had tried calling her friend Dana, but she was stuck at orchestra practice and said she wouldn't be free for a few more days because of the tight practice schedule. So to pass the time, Linda decided to start up a conversation with the pointed man.

She looked at him expectedly, waiting for him to take a pause in his typing. When he suddenly did, Linda opened her mouth.

"Jarvis?"

"…Yes madam." He mumbled.

Suddenly, Linda realized she had nothing to talk about. She had started up a worthless conversation about nothing. She tried to think. What had any of the guests or butlers or maids or cooks been talking about lately? What was good gossip?

_There was that one thing…that's perfect._

"Do you believe in ghosts?" she asked, patting her knees with her palms lightly. Jarvis stopped typing, thinking for a second.

"Of course I do." He muttered before continuing. Linda looked at him impressed.

"So then you know of—"

"The ghost on the twelfth floor? Of course. With how much of it spreads through this hotel, who wouldn't know? Luckily every person in America finds haunted places fascinating and flock their like flies to a garbage can." He sneered and Linda nodded.

She watched him for a second before continuing.

"Have you ever seen it?"

"No I have not. I have seen remnants of him, but that was a year or so ago. Apparently, as the butlers say, it chooses when to be active…and for now it has chosen not to be." He said simply and Linda nodded. She looked around the room and saw a crowd of maids walking from the staff coatroom. They had wrapped themselves in large coats, scarves and hats to brave into the mild air.

Jarvis watched Linda stare at them longingly as they giggled and skipped their way out the door. He eyed her in his peripheral vision as she rung her hands together, playing with her fingers impatiently. He let out a long sigh, pausing in his typing.

"They're going out to lunch for an hour or two. If you grab your coat, you can follow them. They would gladly let you join…but I must warn you that they giggle like a pack of rabid hyenas." He informed her and Linda looked at him confused for a second.

"What?"

He let out another sigh, stopping his typing and turning on his heel to face her.

"I said, FOLLOW THEM. All of yesterday you were boasting about doing whatever you want and here you sit, being as lazy as possible. Go to lunch with them—ENJOY yourself." He practically ordered. Linda looked back at the girls who had stopped to flirt with a passing guest who had just gotten back from the gym. Linda sucked in a breath and stood up.

"I'll do just that!" she said loudly, saying it more to herself then anyone. She needed to tell herself to get out there and she didn't know why Jarvis had to be the one to inform her of her laziness. She picked up her coat from the back of the chair she sat on and pulled it on. She lifted up a hand as if hailing a taxi and she called out for one of the recognizable maids' names.

She blanked for a second and then caught herself, yelling: "Hey! Karen! KAREN!" she called and the small brown haired girl spun around smiled brightly, waving to her and flagging her over.

Linda turned to Jarvis.

"Thank you so much." She whispered and he just ignored her as she ran off to catch up with the maids who greeted her happily, not failing to let her join their group. They had linked arms with her and lead her away from the hotel, down the street.

* * *

They had all gone to lunch at some random restaurant that Linda had never even heard of. She was sure it must've been some underground café or something for she had never heard of a chain with the same name. But it was amazing food.

With another hour to spare, the maids wanted to take Linda off to go check out new things in the area.

"Alright. Where should we go first? I heard that the Laundromat down the street just got a new cashier. He's from SWEDEN." A little blonde girl with a high squeaky voice muttered, grinning devilishly. But a dark maid just waved her hand at that idea and spoke up.

"I heard that the old coffee and chocolate shop over on 6th got a new decorator and it's gotten totally made over." She said with a shrug. The brown-haired girl who had waved to Linda protested to this and suggested other place.

Soon the sidewalk was filled with all of the girls shouting out suggestions, things that Linda found to be the least interesting things she had ever heard. She didn't find new workers at stores, or new paint jobs very fun. But she did remember one thing that would be fun.

"Hey!" she called over the girls. They were all suddenly quiet, turned to her expectedly, waiting for her to say something. She stared back at them all, a little nervous.

"Uhm…someone just bought the old abandoned firehouse." Linda pointed out and the all of their mouths dropped open.

"Oh my God, Linda, why didn't you mention that before! LET'S GO!" the little blonde girl squealed and they proceeded to skip down the street towards the firehouse, Linda jogging to keep up in heels.

She knew she had created a monster, born from her curiosity and her parent's own curiosity. They had wanted her to spy, but she just wanted to someplace to go. Linda thought that maybe she would start wanting to spy on them and not get to know them. She had been thinking about them, and the book about parapsychology all week.

The group had arrived at the firehouse right as a large black, old-fashioned ambulance was staring to pull in. A man stood on a ladder above the door, putting up a big white sign with the words GHOSTBUSTERS written on it in black paint.

Over all the giggling, Linda could hear a familiar voice call out:

"You don't think it's too small do you? You don't think anybody's gonna be able to read the sign?" it called out sarcastically and the man on the ladder just shook his head. The man with the voice was standing in the street watching the sign, with his hands stuffed in his pockets and his sweater un-tucked.

The girls all ran to the side of the building and peeked out to watch, giggling as they found the man in the middle of the street mildly attractive. The man knew it too, so he smirked a bit and watched them from the corner of his eye, not noticing Linda just taking her time to walk up beside the group of giggling girls.

The ambulance began to pull into the drive in and the man in the street ran up to the car, trying to peak in.

"Hey you can't park that here!" he called as the car stopped and was put into park. The drivers side opened and out popped the man that Linda recognized as Ray, which must've meant the sarcastic one was Peter.

"Whadya think? Isn't she a beauty?" he grinned, patting the top of the grim covered car. The girls sneered at it, looking like a mix between frightened and disgusted. Linda just kind of smirked, starting to form a smile as Ray looked legitimately proud of the car.

"Yeah…but she looks like she's been through a war! What work does it need?" Peter asked, looking it over, trying to do his best to look through the windows, but having no luck.

Ray looked at the hood of the car, all the way to the back as he closed the door. He walked to the front of the car and opened up the lid.

"Well it needs some shocks and…some suspensions." He muttered, squinting at the car.

"Oh, great. How much?" Peter laughed with a sarcastic tone in his voice.

"About forty-eight hundred. And it needs new brakes, brake pads, steering, lining, transmission, rear-end—" Ray continued on as Peter stood there silently. No one could see his face but Ray, but Linda had an idea that his eyes were widening and his face was dropping and his mind was blowing into a million pieces.

The girls began to giggle, causing Ray to look up at them, squinting, absolutely confused at who could be giggling. He saw the girls and slightly turned pink. Silently, he either whispered or mouthed something to Peter and Peter spun to see all the girls. He smiled to himself but he knew that Ray wanted the girls gone.

Linda just watched Ray the entire time, his nervous expression and twitching as he tried his best to stay calm and play with his car. He wasn't nervous about girls, he was just nervous that people were staring. He either wanted the car to be a surprise or the entire business a surprise.

Peter lifted up his hands and began walking towards the girls.

"Alright ladies, break it up, break it up! Time to go! Get a move on!" he called and the girls all giggled and began walking out from behind the wall. One by one Peter stared at all of them longingly. He growled something through his teeth, something like Ray's name with an inconspicuous 'Damn You' before it.

The girls all ran across the street to leave as quickly as possible as Peter watched them, Ray trying not to watch them but watch his car and all the workers watch the building in horror as they thought of finishing up the pile of junk.

Linda finally walked out from behind the wall slowly, taking her time to bring everything in, staring mainly at the sign, then at Peter with her solemnly interested and calm look.

Ray noticed the look right as she stared at him. The same unforgettable blues he had explained before. The stare was a stare you hear in fairytale books, where's serious and strong-willed but it's relaxed and open. Quite serene like she has all the answers she needs.

Which she does.

They certainly weren't opening up any kind of hotel.

And that was last she thought about that. Now she just wanted to tear her eyes away from Ray's beautiful hazel one's and get home to read that Parapsychology book.

As she left she could still feel his eyes boring into her back, and his face and the sign reading GHOSTBUSTERS still engraved in her mind.


	6. Do You Still Believe?

**Sorry for the delay!**

**School and the Super Bowl have been invading my schedule…and planning for Mid-Winter Break stuff.**

**During Mid-Winter Break I'll be writing more, but I can't post anything cause there is NO Internet where I'm goin. :/**

**Major sad-face. But that's okay.**

**Enjoy this part, where you explore Linda's feelings about the paranormal and the idea of "Ghostbusters".**

"It was probably the most paranormally revealing evidence since the Fox sisters down in Rochester! I went to the library to retrieve more books on the Paranormal and I found a history book of the stuff! When the librarian saw me with it, he asked if I knew anyone who took care of ghosts. I told them about these guys that I saw at the library earlier and apparently they had seen a real, live, physical GHOST." Linda grinned, struggling to keep up with Dana who was carrying exponentially more items then she.

Dana rolled her eyes as they walked across the street's, taxi's slowing to a crawl to wait for them to pass, honking all the while. Linda lifted her hand to apologize to the drivers, while Dana didn't even flinch.

Once they made it inside and the elevator had risen to the correct floor, Linda watched as Dana took wider, quiet steps then before. Linda walked normally, her heels quiet against the rug. Before Dana was even past a certain door it was pulled open.

"Oh Dana hi! Your home!" a short man with slicked brown hair and large, square black glasses attached to the bridge of his nose. He wore a bright blue track suit with bleached white socks and shoes.

"…Hi Louis!" Dana said reluctantly, her voice sounding falsely pleasant and highly guilty. She had tried to sneak past him but she never could.

Linda barely remembered Louis. She hadn't seen him in the longest time, but luckily Louis was good with faces and waved to Linda happily.

"Hey there Linda! How are your parents? Is there accountant still over priced, cause I really do suggest they switch." He rambled on, standing awkwardly with a slumped back and crooked smile. Linda just sort of nodded.

"Yes Louis, but you would have to talk to my parents about that—"

"So anyway, I went to the pharmacy today and got some more vitamins and stuff. I was just doing my new 20 minute work out video, but I sped it up so I can do it all in 10 minutes! It's a great workout—would you like to come in for a mineral water?" he began, turning to Dana who was just turning the key in her door lock.

She just simply shook her head with a pathetic smile, picking her stuff back up as the door was pushed open a foot or so.

"No that's okay." She smirked and Linda walked up next to her and pushed her way inside the apartment.

"Oh alright…." He muttered as Linda set her stuff down on the floor next to a light gray arm chair and her large parapsychology books on the chair itself. She looked around the neat little apartment with the same type of color coordination: light grays with some purples, the occasional green plants and brown, wooden furniture pieces.

What she didn't notice automatically was Dana's old TV. It was hard to see why, when the TV was turned up to full volume.

I didn't know Dana liked to watch it so loud…

"Dana! You left your TV on!" Linda called and Louis began to nod.

"I was just going to mention that! The neighbors called in a complaint to the manager about how loud your TV was." He explained and Dana's head snapped quickly, from inside the house, back to Louis to keep an eye on him as she began to stutter.

"Oh—I—I didn't realize I left it on.…" she mumbled and Louis' crooked smile appeared again, exposing his clean teeth.

"Yeah, I tried to climb outside your window to disconnect the cable but I couldn't reach it, so I turned up my TV really loud so everyone would think that something was wrong with both of our TV's—"

"Bye Louis." Dana said simply, shutting the door behind her quickly and Linda could hear Louis call something to them and then heard him struggling to open his own door. Linda just rolled her eyes as Dana walked in and set her own things down.

"What a pain." She sighed and Linda picked up her book to sit down in the arm chair as Dana pulled off her coat. Linda only shrugged a reply and opened her book to a random page.

Dana eyed the book before walking over to the TV to turn it down, not before a new commercial popped on. A voice, familiar to Linda's ears came out of the TV as Dana had turned it down to her desired volume and was planning to turn it off.

"_Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?_" said the TV, a man in the middle of a trio had stepped out, staring at the ground before looking up to speak. The three of them wore light gray suits, all of them holding some kind of equipment.

Dana hesitated in touching the off switch as Linda jumped up onto the seat, yelling excitedly: "DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON." Linda pointed at the TV like she was calling it guilty in court. Dana looked from her to the TV, crossing his arms in discontent as the man on the right stepped forward, staring down at the ground as well to find his marker.

"_Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic?_"

He stepped away and the man on the left stepped forward.

"_Have you or any of your family seen a spook, specter or ghost?_"

This man spoke monotonously, as though he thought nothing would come from such a commercial. Linda watched in wonder as they all continued to talk, her eyes unknowingly lighting up as the man in the middle would step forward to speak, Ray, she remembered his name was.

"_If the answer is yes, then don't waste another minute. Just pick up the phone and call the professionals._"

"_GHOSTBUSTERS._" They said, united as one, a yellow phone number appearing below them. Linda grinned and pointed at the TV.

"Those are the ones I told you about! The ones that bought the old firehouse that my parents wanted me to spy on!" she squealed and Dana rolled her eyes.

"_Our courteous and efficient staff is on call 24 hours a day to serve all of your supernatural elimination needs._" Ray said, appearing to be the only one on screen now, pointing at the audience happily.

"_GHOSTBUSTERS. We're ready, to believe you._" They all finished, pointing at the screen all together. Linda felt small butterflies erupt in her stomach as she felt Ray's contagious smile get the best of her and she smiled as well. Her eyes were so wide in excitement, she looked more maniacal then excited.

Again, as usual, Dana rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." She muttered as she shut off the TV.

Linda watched her walk past her, carrying her groceries into the kitchen. She jumped off the chair and picked up the parapsychology book.

"Dana! They're a real business! This stuff is REAL! Take it seriously! PLEASE." Linda begged as Dana pulled her groceries out of her bag, starting with the eggs. She set them on the counter as she laughed.

"None of that stuff is real, Linda. I don't mean to always judge you when it comes to what you're interested in, but it seems you don't make the most contemporary choices even though you grew up in such a high class family." Dana shrugged, thinking simply and objectively.

Linda slammed the book on the counter in front of her as she moved to a different one to pull out the vegetables.

"I have FACTS. There are eyewitnesses, going back all the way to the Salem Witch Trials—"

"That isn't the greatest example, seeing as how those people were then executed for being witches…or as I say, being crazy!" Dana smiled sweetly and Linda herself rolled her eyes.

"Of course. Why learn history when we could be stuck inside, sitting in a chair, playing the cello with 30 other people!" Linda moaned, teasing her furiously as Dana opened her mouth to contradict her.

"You do the same thing with history, you just READ with 30 other people." Dana pointed out. She continued, "Besides, don't you have a paper to write? Isn't that why you got this book in the first place?"

"Oh Dana, you don't get it! I started to read this book, and I just…I forgot all about that paper and I got lost in this book! All the facts and events that are listed in here, are some of the most interesting things I've ever heard of. People being touched, things falling over and breaking, chairs moving, possessions, and even MURDERS." Linda laughed, holding up the book and pointing at different points on the pages with a wild grin on her face.

Dana sighed.

"I'll never get to you will I?" she questioned and Linda smiled.

"You catch on quickly. But you really should look into it…at some point I'll write my paper about the connection, but until then I need good, well-evidenced points to convey my point and—" Linda began to explain when she suddenly heard something.

It was like a popping noise. Like something was popping out of a tight spot before there was a crack and a splash, followed by the sound of something wet hitting a hot skillet, causing it to sizzle. It happened multiple times and Dana had noticed it just as Linda did.

Out of the corner of their eyes they saw steam and immediately turned their heads to see Dana's eggs sizzling on the counter.

"What the hell—" Dana began as Linda took a step forward, holding her book close. Dana followed close behind as they walked up to the counter and looked down at the eggs.

An egg popped out from it's spot and flew onto the counter, cracking and sizzling, causing Dana's hands to fly up to her mouth as she gasped in a fright. Linda just hopped backwards, squeezing the sides of the book until her knuckles were white.

"….still don't believe?" Linda whispered suddenly, her voice shaky. Inaudible to her, Dana had heard a voice over Linda's. A deep growl was a more likely explanation.

Dana lifted her head and turned slowly to the fridge, the cracks of the door were shining brightly. Linda did the same and took a step towards the fridge as Dana just stood frozen. When she noticed Linda moving, she as well took a hesitant step forward.

Linda stepped to the side of the fridge and looked at Dana, then to the door as another growl slowly erupted from it. She motioned with her head that Dana should open it.

In response, Dana just slowly took one of her hands and reached for the door handle. With little power, Dana tugged to pull it open, just a crack, enough for a beam of light to shoot out and for some kind of fog roll out from the bottom.

Linda gulped down a pocket of air as she looked down and saw the fog rolling over her feet.

They both leaned forward, Dana more hesitant then Linda. When they looked inside there was only one things.

It was golden room, with tall white stairs. At the top was a large dog/cougar/bear/gargoyle hybrid. It lifted it's head to show glowing red eyes. When it opened it's mouth, more golden light shone and blinded them, wind beginning to blow.

"_**ZUUUUUUUL.**_" It called. Dana's mouth flew open and screamed, followed by Linda who grabbed the door and shut it madly.

"RUN!" Linda screamed terrified, holding the book to her side as they both scrambled out of the kitchen and grabbed all of there things, not giving Dana any time to grab any type of clothing.

They ran down the hall, screaming slightly, looking over their shoulders every once in a while. Louis was still stuck outside of his house.

"Hey…where are you girls going? Dana?" he called, walking into the middle of the hallways to try and see them around the corner.

And that was the last they had stepped inside the building for the rest of that day.

Dana was officially staying in the Sedgewick for a while.


	7. You Seem Active, Twelfth floor!

**Heyyyy….long time so see huh?**

**Sorry 'bout that.**

**I did more typing of my Original Stories to worry about this!**

**I'M SOOOOOO SORRY.**

**D:**

**I hope you guys can forgive me by reading this NEW chapter!**

Dana sat on a loan white couch, her legs curled up under, and the tips of her fingers in her mouth, biting her nails inconspicuously. Linda walked in from a separate room with two cups of something. Steam lifted from them, meaning it something along the longs of tea or coffee.

She rolled her eyes as she tried her best to get to the couch quickly before Dana called her yet again to ask why she was taking so long.

Both of these ladies, Dana more then Linda seeing as how Linda had to manage the hotel, had been cooped up in Linda's top floor suite for two days, since Dana's apartment had been abandoned due to supernatural reasons. Dana didn't dare go and check on her house or even go out.

It wasn't because she was afraid of ghosts, she didn't even believe in the things. It was because she thought some wild cat was living in her fridge.

Linda walked around the couch and held out one of the cups in front of Dana, smiling to try and seem cheery. "Here you go!" Linda said quite merrily.

The scared little musician took it slowly and sipped it at the same speed. She loudly swallowed all of it in 3 sips and Linda sat in another chair just staring at her oddly, watching her lean out and set the cup down on the coffee as she looked back out the large window and shifting in her seat, rubbing her arms like she was cold.

"…Dana?" Linda finally asked.

Dana turned her head to look at her and she raised her eyebrows.

"Yes?"

"Well…are you ever going to…you know….get out?"

She looked at Linda rather offended. Linda's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"No, no I didn't mean it like that! I'm happy that you're staying with me! I just mean…you need to leave the suite sometime and go out and…get some sun?" Linda shrugged and Dana just narrowed her eyes.

"Basically, you would like me to go back and face the monster in the closet." Dana sighed, speaking figuratively. Linda just slowly nodded her head, looking around like she was going over Dana's sentence.

"You mean fridge…."

"Excuse me?"

"Fridge. You have a ghost in your fridge, not a monster in your closet." She muttered again, her eyes darting around like Dana was weird for not understanding what she was saying. Dana, again, narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

"That was NOT a ghost." She said roughly and Linda rolled her eyes.

She ran one hand through her hair as she spoke, "Dana, you do realize that it SPOKE right? If it was really a wild cat, ONE how could it speak, and TWO…how the hell would it get in your fridge on the 22nd floor of an apartment building in New York City?" she asked shrugging like it was basic knowledge, which it really was. Just not to Dana. Dana wanted it to be anything but a ghost like Linda had been trying to convince her it was.

"It's possible okay? More possible then any type of ghost phenomena." Dana said defensively and Linda's shoulders dropped.

"Dana." She whined. Dana just lifted her hand to stop her and she shook her head slowly.

"No, no, no. I don't believe in ghosts or—or specters or spooks!" she explained before sipping her tea again, quietly. Linda just shook her head and crossed her arms, looking at the window a little frustrated.

They were both quiet. Linda had already brought up the pink elephant in the room, and Dana didn't want any part of it. She didn't want to mention any part of that elephant. But on the inside, Dana must've known that something was wrong with her house and it had nothing to do with any type of wild cat. It had something to do with ghosts and she had to do something about it.

"Alright—so—what if it _is_ a ghost. What do we do?" Dana sighed, not wanting to look at Linda and show her defeat. Linda smirked and rubbed the back of her head.

She continued to stare out the window when she said: "I don't really know anyone personally that could look at ghosts. But…there is this…ONE place." Linda said, trying to remember the name of the firehouse.

Dana looked at her skeptically. "They actually have BUSINESSES that take care of ghosts?"

"Dana, we saw a commercial for it on the T.V! When we went to your apartment." Linda pointed out and Dana kept her skeptic look.

"I thought that was a commercial for a T.V. show." She muttered honestly, and Linda pressed her lips together trying to remember the three men. She knew one of them seemed cheeky, staring at women funny, the other was quite tall with glasses, looked very…monotonous to her. The other, she had to admit was quite cute, seemingly shy compared to the cheeky one.

Linda snapped her fingers and pointed at Dana.

"Ghostbusters! That's what they're called!" she said excitedly. She stood up and walked around her chair and headed for her room, most likely to get out of her comfy clothes and actually get dressed for the day.

Dana watched her carefully and sipped her tea.

"You're seem a little too thrilled about this." Dana muttered, seeming annoyed and not as eager as Linda was as she walked out in her not so normal wear. She was wearing an actual dress that didn't really need to hug her body but it did it in all the right places; and she kept her not-so-clean hair back with a clip.

She shrugged and let her hands slap her sides.

"C'mon! Get up. We need to get going." She said quickly waving her hands in an upwards manner as if motioning her to get up. Dana just pushed herself up and smoothed down her own dress. She set down her cup and walked to the closet to grab both of them coats and scarves.

They applied their outerwear and they left the suite. Linda locked the door behind her and they quietly walked to the elevator. They both just looked around at the few other doors and then looked down at the floor quietly.

Once they were in the elevator they started flying down, slowly, with the calm elevator music playing.

"…do you think they'd believe me when I tell them that I have a monster in my fridge?" Dana asked, turning her head to look at Linda. Linda looked back and shook her head.

"A monster? No. A ghost. Definitely." She smirked.

Suddenly the elevator stopped and Linda looked up at the small black screen. It read the number 12.

"It must be someone that also needs to go down." She said slowly.

The door opened and no one was there. Linda took a step forward and stuck her head out, looking both ways down the hall and no one was there. She sneered and scoffed.

"Great, kids playing ding dong ditch with elevators—ew! Those little brats wiped something all over the buttons!" she shrieked looking at the button panels between the elevators and just seeing green goop dripping down the walls, like someone had thrown some large water balloon full of goop.

Dana just rolled her eyes, "Don't worry about it now! Let's just go and talking to those Ghostbusters and get it over with."

Linda just nodded and took a step back into the elevator, pressing the "close door" button and watched the doors shut ominously, the elevator music starting again.

Making it to the lobby, they both just took long strides across the marble like floors, the footsteps only adding to the echo of voices and footsteps that had already collected down there by the ballroom where, as Linda was told, a party was being set up for that night.

Both of them just flagged down a taxi together and they both climbed in, Linda remembering where they were supposed to go. The car ride was just as quiet as the elevator ride.

Luckily, they got there fast enough for Linda to be able to get out of the silence and lead Dana to the door. From the outside they could hear banging and tinkering, including one tiny, nasally voice talking about paperwork.

Dana looked to Linda.

"It sounds more like a hardware store in there. Not a ghost catching company." Dana said monotonously as Linda just stared forward at the door, excited to open it. She reached for a tiny doorknob in the middle of the big door. She could see the outline of a human sized door.

Her hand grasped the door handle and she pulled it open and the door only squeaked a little, which must've meant that they had been cleaning the place up.

Linda stepped back and opened the door wide open so Dana could step through first Which she did, hesitantly.

They both first looked at the car, now beautiful and white, with lots of contraptions on the top of it, most likely for sirens or bright lights to get peoples attention. Linda smirked when she remembered how it used to look.

Dana began to walk forward before Linda did and didn't notice the khaki colored legs that were sticking out from the opened hood of the car. That was wearing the tinkering noises were coming from. Someone was working on the car.

Linda followed closely behind Dana and looked more up at the ceiling then around at the walls. The ceiling was higher then she thought.

A light puff of smoke rose from under the hood and Linda watched the smoke disappear. Obviously the person was dangerously smoking while working on the car?

_Very professional._ Linda thought sarcastically.

Dana walked past the car sullenly, not caring if anyone was in the car. But the man inside heard her footsteps and stuck his dirty head out, the cigarette sticking out of his mouth as he watched the woman walk up to the secretary's desk.

The head was covered in brown hair that Linda automatically recognized and she stopped right before the hood and took a step back so he wouldn't see her. His head bowed back into the hood of the car and he continued to work. Linda snuck forward a step or two and watched him work for a second or two, examining him.

She watched his legs wriggle and writhe as he used all of his arm power to turn something or move something around the inside of the car. Linda smirked, watching him.

_Nice butt…_ she thought, nodding her head.

Inaudibly she gasped to herself and she stood up straight, taking steps back again so he couldn't see her. Dana looked back to point at her, saying that she had told her about them. Linda looked between a small woman, the cheeky man and Dana.

She just waved and turned around to leave, hoping to scurry out of there. Dana could take care of herself.

"Bye Dana! Hope this all works out!" Linda called and the man in the car, Ray as Linda remembered, looked up from the hood and he turned slightly pink as she waved. He must've thought she was waving at him.

Scurrying faster, she almost tripped on her way our the building and she shut it quickly behind her so she could lean against it and let the wind cool down her face.

_That…was embarrassing._ She thought resentfully.

* * *

Linda stood in the elevator, alone. She just stared at her feet and her legs. She had taken off her coat so she could cool down, especially after running all the way back to the hotel to clear her head. Luckily she was wearing flats.

She had promised Jarvis that she would take a shower and change so she could be ready for the big party in the ballroom that night. She needed to _seem _presentable to the public after totally losing herself in running and thinking about having the Ray actually stare at her.

It wasn't that _he _was staring at her, it was that they were _all_ staring at them. "Cheeky", Ray, the secretary and Dana were just staring at her and it was embarrassing. Especially after being caught off guard when trying to be sneaky and stare at some guy she didn't even know personally.

Linda noticed that the elevator had suddenly stopped and the doors had opened. She sighed contently, happy to be on her top floor, and she stepped out into the hallway. The door closed and she turned around to look at it close. The sign above the elevators read the number 12 in big black letters on a shiny gold plate.

She let out a groan and lifted her hand to slap the button. When she did all she got was a splurg or goop and she tore her hand away from the button.

She held her hand up and saw her hand covered in goo and she gasped.

"Eww! Jarvis said he got someone to clean it up!" she growled.

Looking around, she awkwardly wiped her hand on a dry part of the wall. As she did so she heard something around the corner. Like someone was pushing a cart.

Linda spun her head around and narrowed her eyes down the hallway, setting her bag and her coat down next to the elevators.

"Hello?" she called.

No answer, but the rustling continued. Linda sucked in a breath and puffed out her chest, stepping forward with determination. She advanced down the hall, her fists clenched knowing it was some group of children that were planning on doing something stupid.

"Excuse me! This is a public place and I happen to own it! So if you plan on defacing any of our property your parents will be ordered to pay for it! And if that happens you will most likely be sent to military school for being HORRIBLE CHILDREN and—" Linda ranted, throwing her hands around in frustration as her voice continued to raise.

When she turned the corner she saw what she didn't expect. It wasn't a children. The thing didn't even have legs.

A big, green blob floated next to a toiletry cart, towels and toilet paper strewn all over the floor and the hallways. Next to it was a stray cart covered in dirty dishes that it must've ransacked before.

The door of a hotel room was open next to it, meaning that the cleaning lady had no clue that this thing was messing with all of her stuff on her cart. The blob was making weird nomming sounds as it grumbled and mumbled while proceeding to throw a towel in Linda's direction.

She lifted her hands up to cover her face as she ducked out of the way of it.

"Hey!" she called and the blob bobbed in a way that meant it was turning to look at her. It stared at her and she just stood there stupidly, not knowing what to do now that she had "it's" attention.

It was the ghost of the twelfth floor. She had finally seen it and she had no idea what to do.

"….You…better stop, RIGHT NOW." Linda ordered, stamping her foot like she was still talking to a child and not some free-floating specter.

The blob made a growling noise and threw more toilet paper at her and towels like she was target practice. She continued to duck.

"He—hey! STOP IT." She snapped and he begun to run out of towels. So he floated over to the cart with all the plates.

She gasped and began to step back, making sure she actually knew he was going to pick something up. She then turned around and began to run as he picked up some sort of saucer and threw it at her.

It crashed into the wall next to her and she screamed. She turned the corner from whence she came and she could hear the cart being pushed. More and more dishes suddenly started flying in her directions and crashed against the walls and the floor, allowing her to scream every time anything hit the floor. A piece of a dish actually flew off of the wall and cut the side of her neck causing her to gasp and grab her neck as she continued to run.

The dishes finally stopped but she could hear the cart rolling as she turned another corner. She looked over her shoulder and saw it pushing an empty cart towards her. With one great push the cart increased with speed and came at her, like the blob had pushed it. She gasped again and jumped into another hallway, not caring if she landed on her feet or not.

The cart flew by and crashed into a wall at the far end of the hall she had jumped out of, the blob following it. She heard it wail as it flew past and she looked back and army crawled to look down the hall that the blob had flown.

It continued to wail until it and the cart had crashed into the wall and made a great crash. The only thing that didn't crash was the blob which had disappeared into the wall.

She let her head fall to the floor and she breathed heavily, not understanding what had just happened. It seemed like it had been harmless at first.

_I probably scared it. _Linda thought, chuckling loudly as a door in the hallway opened and an elderly woman ran to her side and kneeled down next to her.

"Ma'am! Are you alright? Ma'am!" she called and Linda looked up and nodded slowly.

"Do you need anything?" she elderly woman asked worriedly.

"…call room service…ask for Jarvis…tell him…to call…the Ghostbusters." She panted before resting her forehead on her arm.

And so the elderly woman did.


	8. Now That's What I Call A Test!

**You better thank Bravo TV for this chapter…**

**Right at this moment… at 6:25pm Pacific time.**

**Ghostbusters is on.**

**And I had the inspiration to continue again.**

"**You're welcome."**

**That's what your TV will reply when you thank it.**

Her neck hurt. That was all she really couldn't ignore at that moment. She ignored the fact that some people stared at her, whispering, knowing that she had been "attacked" by something; she ignored the fact that she knew there was some kind of ghost up on the 12th floor; she ignored the fact that Jarvis kept sneering at her whenever she even moved behind the lobby's front desk; and she ignored the fact that they were planning on having a party down in the ball room while there was some scary force somewhere above their heads.

She thought the pain in her neck from the cut would be the easiest to ignore, but it didn't exactly hurt, it was more of the idea.

"_Yes_," she would start. "_The 'idea of it' sounds very corny._"

But she believed it wasn't. Everything has an idea, and the idea of the cut on her neck was how it got there. Thinking about how something translucent, something not of this world, something that isn't supposed to be real could have picked up a tangible plate and thrown it at her.

Every once in a while she would rub it with her fingertips, just letting them graze over it quite carefully, just to feel it.

Luckily she had taken her shower, cleaned herself up, put on more appropriate work clothes and applied some new makeup before she had gone downstairs. The only thing that would seem "off" about her would be the cut on her neck.

Nothing about her personality, nothing about her appearance (minus the scar). If anything was "off" about her personality, it was that she was excited.

She had experienced something paranormal. She had real evidence that she could even include in her Archeology paper. Thinking about a reason as to why a ghost would be in her hotel would _also_ be helpful to her paper.

And she was excited for another reason.

And that reason was just walking into the door.

"Yes Dana it _did_ chase me…yes…yes…no…yes. Dana I hadn't even made it to the top floor yet, I wasn't even CLOSE to my mini-bar!" Linda grumbled into the phone, staring down at her large parapsychology book, her finger tracing the words in the book.

Jarvis let out a sigh and organized everything on the desk, just before looking up to watch people in the crowd walk by and into the bar or any of the restaurants.

Linda didn't notice his sudden moves as he stood up straight and stepped around her and a chair, slinking his way around the desk. Linda just looked up for a moment, and then back down to her book as Dana explained how the meeting with the Ghostbusters went along.

She just wanted to interrupt her for a second to say something about what she had found in the book. Something about what exactly the ghost was; what kind and what part of the spectrum level it came from. So she decided it was easier just to do it.

"—Dana—it says here that—"

"HEY, ANYBODY SEEN A GHOST?" a booming voice called out loudly.

"Thank you for coming so quickly!" Jarvis' voice replied, running up behind the men, causing them to jump away from him, one of them, Peter, looking prepared to defend himself before dropping his arms in relief. All three men carried large black packs with blinking lights and glittering switches, something that looked to be heavy for a backpack full of supplies.

Linda gasped and closed the book, stuffing it under the table. She fixed her hair and coughed to clear her throat.

"Dana I gotta go—I GOTTA GO." She growled as Dana tried to intervene and she slammed it down onto the receiver. She continued to fix her hair and press down her tight skirt and fixed her sleeves.

She took the same smooth move around the chair and table, just as Jarvis had done, and she took long quick steps to get to them, not wanting to jog. She had to look partially normal to the guests that were roaming around the lobby.

"The guests have started to ask questions and I'm running out of answers."

"Has this ever happened before?" Ray asked, the man on the other side of Jarvis.

"Well, most of the staff knows about the 12th floor—of the disturbances I mean. B—but it's been quiet for years! Up until two weeks ago…."

_Two weeks ago?_ Linda thought, finding that statement odd, seeing as how she hadn't heard about it, well, two weeks ago.

"But it's never been this bad…attacking people and what not." Jarvis stated.

"It attacked someone? Janine didn't mention that." Ray answered, holding out his hand to catch Jarvis' attention as they walked down the middle of the lobby. Jarvis ignored him though, and Egon, as Linda remembered, spoke up instead.

"Have you reported this to anyone?"

"Oh heavens, NO!" Jarvis said loudly and all three men sort of rolled their eyes and let out exasperated sighs.

Linda rolled her own eyes and decided to speed up. She was still a long way's away from them surprisingly. She thought she had been walking faster then she actually was. She began to jog.

"You see, the owners don't really like to talk about it—"

"Well that's because they're out of town. But their daughter happens to be here, and she can speak for them. Can't she Jarvis?" Linda laughed sarcastically, finally reaching them and clapping her hands together to catch their attention. She stepped between Peter and Jarvis and looked from him, to Ray and then back at the other two.

The three Ghostbusters seemed taken aback by someone intruding on the conversation, despite her fancy attire and a certain business-air to her. Their reactions were all quite different: Egon kept his face at a downward slope, staring awkwardly at the floor ahead of the group; Peter stared at the back of Linda's head like it was some sort of mirror; and Ray just stared at Linda dumbfounded, either by the fact that she was a woman or by the fact that she just randomly appeared.

Jarvis sighed, "This is Miss Sedgewick." He muttered, introducing them to her.

Peter poked his head around her shoulder, moving her hair out of his face.

"Sedgewick? I see. You're the hotel heiress I presume." He muttered with a childish smirk and sly eyes, his sudden voice in her ear causing her to jump and look back at him as Jarvis nodded.

"Yes. She is the one that demanded I call you—"

"Thank you so much for coming, you have no idea how much this means to us. Finally getting the closure we need about that pesky ghost." She said quickly, clapping her hands together yet again. She chuckled awkwardly as Egon reached into his large pockets and came up from behind her, a large blinking box in his hand. He drifted it down the side of her body, startling her slightly as it accidentally grazed her exposed calf on it's way back up.

The box passed over her neck where her cut was and it beeped multiple times as he scanned it over the cut again and again.

"She's been in recent contact with the ghost." He stated simply and Ray snapped out of his trance, his eyes still fixated on her.

"You must be the one that Jarvis here had told us about. The one who was attacked." Ray said quietly, mostly in a sorrowful tone, like he was comforting someone at a funeral. A typical "I'm-sorry-for-your-loss" tone.

Ray leaned forward a bit to look at her scar and she moved her head away from his. He looked into her eyes and turned pink, leaning back away from her. Peter eyed him and Ray felt his stare, he looked at his friend and behind Linda's back Peter lifted his hand, giving him a wink and an "OK" sign, to make Ray feel better for embarrassing himself.

"Alright—well—where is this ghost of yours? Twelfth floor right?" Peter asked, pulling up his belt and sucking in stomach, puffing out his chest and taking a step forward, suggesting they continue conversing.

"Yes, that's right." Linda replied and Jarvis poked his way between them.

"I hope we can take care of this quietly." He said and Ray began to nod positively, reaching for his belt and pulling off a large set of goggles.

"Yes sir. Don't worry. We handle this sort of thing all the time." He said stretching the strap over his head and letting the goggles rest just above his forehead. Peter smirked and Egon continued to press buttons on a doohickey that Linda couldn't recognize, or at least hadn't seen before.

They all walked ahead, leaving Jarvis behind. Linda followed them, making sure to stay in step.

"Um—ma'am, I think it'd be best if you would stay in the lobby—" Ray advised as they drew closer to the elevators. But Peter held up his hand.

"No, no Ray. If the little lady wants to come, she may come. It is _her_ hotel after all." He said, his tone a mix between sarcasm and "fair-is-fair". Linda couldn't tell whether he was trying to be funny or whether he was actually serious and was trying to come off as sort of an ass.

But Linda wouldn't tell him that, or say it out loud.

Ray just nodded, looking around awkwardly before staring back up at the elevators confidently, walking past Linda to walk up the few steps. She picked up her speed and stood with them as they all lined up in front of the elevators next to a man in a tan trench coat and black hat. They all stood there awkwardly, looking around some more and enjoying the scenery, Ray bobbing back and forth on his heels.

The man in the trench coat stared at them oddly, holding an lit cigar in his hand. Linda lifted her own hand and waved a bit with a nervous smile.

"Good evening Mr. Harvey." She muttered, remembering when he had checked in the day before, and he nodded in her general direction.

"What are you supposed to be, some kind of a cosmonaut?" Mr. Harvey asked after another couple seconds of silence.

Peter chuckled like it was a joke, "No, we're exterminators. Someone saw a cockroach up on twelfth." He said smoothly, using his sarcastic/serious tone again, just to confuse everyone. A middle age couple walked past, giving them all weird looks as Linda smiled nervously again, rubbing her arms.

"…that's one big cockroach." He muttered.

"Bite your head off." Peter nodded seriously, his eyebrows raised as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. A couple stepped out and automatically backtracked around the three men, staring at them terrified, like they were monsters.

Linda watched them as they all started heading into the elevators, Egon waiting for Linda to step ahead of him before moving, being the silent gentlemen that he seemed to be. Mr. Harvey hesitated and Ray stuck his head out of the elevator door.

"Going up?" he asked sweetly and Linda bit her lip, watching the interaction between the two.

"I'll take the next one." Mr. Harvey cringed and Ray nodded.

"Suit yourself."

The doors closed after Egon struggled to squeeze between Peter and Linda to get to the back and they were soon heading up at a slow pace, the ride taking forever. Linda just stared at the crack in the elevators doors, zoning out too much to actually hear what they were talking about. She knew she should've been listening. Listening to their experiences and learning how they work these situations out would've been educational for Linda's paper. But she just blanked.

She felt the air behind her heighten, as though the space had become vacant right as a loud humming filled the elevator. Linda looked to her right and saw Ray standing there casually, his pack making the noise. She looked over her shoulder at where Egon should have been and there was the free space. She looked over her other shoulder and saw that he was squeezed tight behind Peter, like Ray's pack was going to explode.

Oh she hoped it wouldn't.

Finally the elevator stopped on the twelfth floor and the doors opened slowly, inching along. Linda stepped out immediately and walked into the middle of the hall to give the three gentlemen room to get out and roam. They all just poked their heads out hesitantly.

Ray stepped out, and first thing he did was go secret agent. He took long, quiet steps, looking left to right, making sure to watch over his shoulders before one of his hands whipped around and grabbed a gun from the proton pack. Linda stared at it wide-eyed and smirked excitedly as they all stepped further into the hall after Ray gave them the "OK".

_This is actually happening!_ Linda thought, not wanting her body movements to match her emotions. If they did she would be dancing or jumping or skipping.

Egon started his proton pack and Peter lead the way down the hall to another, identical hallway.

All of them, except Linda took quiet steps, looking in every direction.

Suddenly, a squeaking noise appeared from behind them and they all spun around. Ray and Egon's fingers locked down on the trigger of their guns and they shot orange lightening from them, both of them screaming. Linda yelped and hid behind Peter who was reaching for the men's arms as their streams hit a toiletry cart.

"…what the _hell_ are you doing?" a woman asked from behind the now destroyed cart, poking her head out from behind it.

"Oh—Vera!" Linda gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as the men bowed their heads in shame.

"….Sorry." Egon finally said.

"Sorry." Peter said immediately afterwards.

"I'm sorry." Ray said lastly, a Canadian accent poking through his New York-like mannerisms.

"We…thought you were someone else." Peter muttered, stepping forward.

Vera began to pick things up and put them back on the cart as Peter turned to face the others.

"…that was a successful test." He said, slightly nodding his head.

Linda's eyes widened, "_TEST_?" she squeaked and Peter pressed his lips together.

"I guess so…I think we better split up." Ray stuttered and Egon nodded in approval, Peter finally nodding as well in agreement.

"You're right. We can do more damage that way." He said sarcastically.

Linda held her tongue this time. Whatever damage they received, Linda knew the hotel could pay for it.

"Miss Sedgewick? Which way would you like to go?" Ray asked, touching her shoulder and pointing down all three directions of hallway. Linda swung her head around to look at all of them and she slowly reached for Ray's arm.

"Which ever way you're going. I'm not going alone." She muttered, wrapping her own arms around his elbow.

Ray looked down at his arm, turning pink and Peter raised his brows impressed. Linda just kept her focus on the burning cart.

It wasn't that she was scared of the ghost, it was that she was scared of being mistaken for the ghost and shot at by none other then these fellows: the one's with the lethal weapons.

Egon pointed down one hall, exclaiming that he would be going down that one, while Peter went down the one with the burning cart. Ray lead Linda down the last hall, and they walked so in silence, Ray's hands placed firmly on his gun, while Linda's arms were placed firmly around his.

They walked in silence, generally looking around, flinching at sounds that came from hotel rooms. With Ray's free arm he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. But that was the most eventful thing for the most part.

Surprisingly, they were so encompassed in looking around that they didn't hear the distant sound of clanking dishes, like someone was eating sloppily in the hallway. They finally came to the crossroads where they would find the cause, and they both stopped in there tracks.

"That's it!" Linda whispered instinctly. Ray's mouth dropped open, his cigarette hanging from his lips as he stared at the green blob eating dirty leftovers on a cart he must've stolen.

Ray pulled Linda back with him as he leaned his head into the previous hall to hiss out Peter's name: "Venkmen…._VE-ENKME-EN._" he said urgently, but no answer. So he just looked back at it disgusted.

"What a disgusting blob…." He muttered and Linda nodded, sneering at it uncomfortably.

"I guess I'm going to have to hold him myself…." He added, gulping down a pocket of air. Linda looked at him, taking in his soft demeanor and terrified expression. She slipped her arms off of his and backed away behind the wall.

With one fellow swoop, Ray set up his gun and shot at the thing, causing it to scream a horrid scream, and pull the cart behind it, down the hall. Linda ran to Ray and grabbed him by the shoulder to pull herself against him, so she could see what was happening but stay close by.

The ghost pushed it's way through the wall, leaving a trail of slime behind it and the cart now in pieces since it tried to follow it through. Ray and Linda ran down the hall to the wall and Linda just stared at it, reminded of when it had attacked her earlier, how it had done the same thing.

Ray began to speak to someone on his walkie-talkie excitedly, and Linda again began to space out, just staring at the goop and all of the broken pieces of glass and extra food scraps that couldn't have gotten into his mouth. She let out a sigh and rubbed her neck again, feeling her scar.

Her zoning was broken when a nasally scream was heard over the walkie-talkie, causing Linda to whip her head around and stare at Ray who was looking at the contraption horrified.

"The ghost!" Linda gasped, thinking whoever was on the other end may have been attacked as Ray flung himself around and down the hall calling Peter's name. Linda ran after him, trying her best to keep up in heels.

They finally reached a hallway where Peter lay in the middle. Ray ran to his side and knelt down, Linda gasped and ran to him also.

"Venkmen! What happened?" Ray asked, both surprised and relieved.

"He slimed me." Peter cringed and Linda rubbed the side of her face as Ray's walkie-talkie went off again.

"Ray, Venkmen, I just saw it go into the ballroom! Get down here quick!"

"Okay, we'll be down there in a second! Venkmen got slimed!" Ray said joyously and Peter continued to cringe.

"That's great Ray, get some for me." Egon replied and Linda let out a snort, allowing Ray to also begin laughing at both Peter and Egon. Peter sat up and glared at both of them.

"Help me up. NOW, Ray." Peter demanded and they all made there way downstairs to Egon, who was waiting just outside the ballroom.

Jarvis walked up to them, walking quickly, heel-toe, heel-toe. He almost bumped into Linda when he stopped. Ray, Peter and Egon had just walked through the door and didn't allow Linda to follow. Egon and Ray grabbed the door handles, looking at Jarvis with teasing smiles.

"If you and your staff would be kind enough to wait out here." Ray muttered as they began to close the doors, staring straight into her eyes as he gave her a sudden cavalier smile, like he was up to something.

Linda felt her cheeks turn red and she nodded.

"Of course." She breathed and the doors closed. She automatically reached for them and locked it tight, just like Ray had ordered her to in the elevator.

"What are you doing?" Jarvis demanded.

"I'm locking the doors! Like they asked!" she said haughtily, spinning on her heels and leaning against the doors, holding the handles so he couldn't reach them.

"They are not authorized—"

"Yes, but I am and—"

There was a crash from inside and loud, ghostly moans. Jarvis jumped and Linda jumped, both of them looking at the door as silence came over them again, besides the bystanders whispering.

"—I am and I have the key anyway! You have no right to tell me what to do!"

"That room is supposed to be prepared for a party in 5 minutes, you can't just let them roam around shooting things—"

Another crash, followed by multiple bangs and another large crash. Linda jumped and yelped as an old woman spoke to Jarvis, his voice getting caught in his throat as he tried to explain.

"I assure you Mrs. Benhoff, it will be ready in time, once your guests are with us!" he assured her and Linda pressed her ear against the door to try and listen to what they were saying.

There were more crashes, not as loud as before, and Jarvis rushed to the door to speak to a doorman who had been holding his post. Mrs. Benhoff had followed them to examine what was wrong.

Jarvis grabbed the doorman by the arm and pulled him close.

"Go get the spare." He growled quietly and Linda gasped as the man ran off.

"Wait—NO! They need more time—" she called as the man suddenly appeared again carrying a key as more crashes erupted from the room.

He pushed past Linda, apologizing while in the process and he began to unlock the door when it burst open for them.

"We came, we saw, we kicked it's ASS!" Peter exclaimed, his clothes still littered with slime.

"What was it—did you see it?" Jarvis asked, backing away, dragging Linda by the arm as she tried to peak around to see it.

"We got it!" Ray said happily, his grin lined with satisfaction as he carried out a small, handled box that was smoking. He held it by the cord. Linda covered her nose at the smell and coughed a couple times. She looked at Ray's grin and realized that that was the reason for the dashing smile; he was excited about catching the ghost.

"What is it? Will there—be any more of them?" Jarvis coughed and Ray held the box away from his face, letting out a horrendous cough from the smell of the smoke.

"Sir, what you have here is what we refer to as a focused non-repeating phantasm, or a class 5, full-roaming vapor." Ray explained as Peter began to fiddle with a book writing in it with a pen. He let out a cough as Ray finished with a laugh, "A real nasty one too!"

"It's not hurt is it?" Linda asked, staring from the box to Ray, who began to smile at her. She didn't know why he was smiling, she thought it was a stupid question.

"No, of course not—"

"Now, let's talk seriously," Peter began and Linda looked at Ray who just let Peter continue talking, he didn't say anything after his first statement, "so, for the entrapment…that's gonna come to four big ones—four thousand dollars for that—but we are having a special this week on proton charging, and storage of the beast. And that will be one thousand dollars." Peter explained.

Jarvis stood up straight, looking absolutely insulted as he stuffed a handkerchief back into his coat pocket.

"Five thousand dollars? I had no idea it would cost that much, I won't pay it." He said simply and Linda looked at him dumbfounded.

Peter just looked from the ground back up to Jarvis, "Oh yeah, you know, that's fine. We can just put that thing right back where it came from, can't we Ray?" Peter asked, stepping aside to make a path for Ray to enter the ball room again.

Jarvis, this time, gasped, and Linda stepped forward and grabbed Ray by the arm with both hands. She pulled him back with a loud, "_NO_!" and she pulled him close. She stared up into his eyes as there faces seemed too close for comfort.

"No!—he means that we'll pay it!" she said urgently, smiling from Ray to all of them as Ray began to turn pink yet again, Linda not noticing as Peter grinned and held out his hand to shake hers.

"Nice doing business with you Little Lady! Hope we see you around town—we only take cash!" he laughed, winking at her.

Linda grinned at Ray who was being grabbed by the proton pack and dragged toward the front door. When she realized she didn't get to pay them in check, and he had asked for cash, she figured she could just hand-deliver the money to them.

A perfect reason to visit them… 


	9. No Job Application Required

**What is this? Another chapter? In two days?**

**CRAZY.**

**But yes, I am watching Ghostbusters AGAIN so I'm fueling the imaginative fire.**

**And Ray is looking too cute right now **

**This scene is to take place during the montage, so it's completely made-up.**

**Yaaay! I don't need to watch the movie to check for quotes!**

**And it's good practice to see if I can keep the 'Busters from becoming too OOC.**

"I will _not_ be allowing you to leave work today! You've been leaving early, and sometimes not even showing up, for the past 5 days. It's unacceptable." Jarvis complained as he walked around, back and forth, around the desk, trying to keep Linda out of his way.

But she wasn't having that, for she was following him. She stayed on his heels no matter how many times he would double-back and try to lose her by making sharp turns or sudden movements.

"You can't be serious! I'm out of college, you can't just expect me to conform and stay here! You can't tell me what to do!" she argued, as he traveled quickly across the lobby's floor towards the bar to take paper work or some kind of instructions to them.

"We are _not_ going to start this here. But if you are on the subject of "can't": _YOU. CAN'T. LEAVE."_ Jarvis said distinctly as they walked into the bar, the lights dimmer then that of the lobby's. The wooden interior and dark color schemes of the chairs, tables and floor threw Linda off, causing her to become discombobulated.

She began to run into things as she tried to keep up with him. Unlike her, Jarvis was weaving in and out of things that Linda couldn't even see. She began to bump into things that were in her way while dodging other artifacts.

"Well if we are on—OW—the subject of "not"—GEEZ—you are _not_ going to tell me what to do!" she growled, as the repetitive occurrence became an utter annoyance until they finally made it to one side of the bar where a man was cleaning out cups.

Jarvis let out a sigh, "I can't let you leave! Your parents will probably be back soon, and they will find out somehow about all of your field days and they will blame _me_!"

Linda let out a groan and rubbed her forehead as she leaned against the bar. Jarvis handed the man a sheet and he looked over it, nodding and beginning to prepare cups and candles. A party must've been arriving soon.

"You can't let my parents scare you. It's obviously eating at you, but they won't do anything. And if they do, that's when I step in and they get mad at me for corrupting you!" she said simply, trying to say it like it was no big deal. The only thing they would be mad about was that she wasn't trying to take care of the hotel. Jarvis would be praised for doing such a great job.

As usually, he just stood there and stayed tall and stiff as he sighed tiredly. He turned to her and eyed her suspiciously.

"If I do let you go, what would you be doing?" he asked.

Linda looked around awkwardly, "I would be paying the Ghostbusters…possibly…." She muttered.

He finally dropped his shoulders and shook his head.

"What?" Linda said defensively.

"Paying them? You are actually going to pay them? They must be _frauds_, I never saw the ghost!" he complained, trying to sound convincing as he remembered the capture a couple days before.

Linda gasped, "You don't believe that I saw it! You think I'm lying! Why would you think that? That investigation was real, and so was the capture, I know it was!" she called out, the bartenders eyeing the two of them as they continued to argue.

"They are not detectives, there was no investigation! They planted the thing there and then picked it up again just so they could take our money." Jarvis growled, getting angry and Linda sucked in a large breath. She let it out with a huff and spun on her heels.

Thankfully, her eyes had adjusted and she could dodge anything in her path. Jarvis lifted his hand and snapped his fingers at her.

"I hope that you are going to get in more work proper clothing?" he called and Linda stopped to look back at him, the large skirt of her tea-cup dress swishing around her calves, her hand on her hips.

She simply just shook her head, her eyebrows lowered into a glare. Without a word, she turned back around and sauntered her way through the lobby, teasing him at how easily she could just walk out, no matter what he said.

So, she grabbed her coat and she grabbed a large key from a smart compartment behind the coat rack. She looked around to make sure no one was watching her as she ran behind the lobby's front desk and kneeled in front of a large metal safe. The safe had a large golden dial on it and a large keyhole that was perfect for the key that Linda had grabbed.

Quietly, she stuck the key into the hole and turned it four times until it clicked. When she opened it, there was just a large ball of cash, most likely put there for emergencies. And to her, paying the Ghostbusters wasn't exactly an emergency. Seeing them was. She had finally met them, but she wanted to know them.

It would be odd going there to just pay them and then staying like she was at some kind of museum, but she knows it would be nicer then trying to stay and deal with Jarvis and the hotel in general.

Grabbing the ball of cash, she tore off the rubber band and counted the amount of money she needed, luckily it was in hundreds so it was a fast count. She pocketed the five thousand dollars and wrapped the ball with the rubber band again.

She pulled on her long white coat, tied the belt of it and quickly walked back across the lobby to the front door so she could make her way to the Ghostbusters headquarters.

* * *

Ray, Egon and Peter tiredly climbed out of the Ecto-1, groaning all the while. After they had captured the ghost at the hotel they had been flooded with calls from people around the county to go and take care of their spooks. They had barely gotten any sleep, and when they did, it really wasn't for that long.

It didn't help that they all had dreams, sometimes nightmares, about things. Peter was clearly having dreams about Dana, seeing as how he would mumble in his sleep about her. Both Egon and Ray noticed for they could never sleep as much as Peter. Egon had nightmares about the containment center exploding, over-loading or just plain not working. Ray knew about this because Egon had informed him every time he would have the nightmare. But no one knew about Ray's dreams.

Ray's were raunchier then he really wanted them to be. He hadn't meant for them to be like that, only because he thought he could control things like that, seeing as how he had never had dreams like that before. No matter how pretty the girl, no matter how sexually she reacted to everything, Ray had never had a "wet dream". So he didn't understand how _she_ could've changed that. It happened a day or two after the hotel capturing.

She had appeared in his dreams, and he knew it must've been a dream because he knew that he would never see her again after they had left the hotel. But either way, there she was, standing at the end of his bed in a night slip. She stood there staring at him as he sat up, absolutely surprised.

"Miss—Miss Sedgewick!" he gasped and her finger lifted to her lips and she slowly shushed him.

"…Call me Linda." She whispered as she lifted her knee onto the bed, her other leg following. She crawled further onto his bed and climbed on top of him, straddling him. He looked her up and down, feeling nervous and uncomfortable.

"Well—Linda—what are you—what are you doing here?" he stuttered and she, again, shushed him. He gulped down a pocket of air as she ran her hands down his chest and along his neck.

"H—How did you g—get here?" he stuttered, growing worse by the second as she bent over and lay her head down on his shoulder.

"Miss—Linda—I don't think this is very professional! I don't think you should be here—it ruins the work atmosphere—serious atmosphere that we have here!" he stammered and Linda sat up again, smiling down at him devilishly.

"Oh, believe me Ray, this is _very_ serious." She said, her voice low and sensual as she got onto her hands and knees again, this time backing down until her head was hovering over his belt.

"Y—Yes this is serious! You can't d—do this now! I can't—wait—" Ray stuttered as Linda's hands reached for his belt and began to unbuckle it, preparing to unzip his pants. She grinned up at him and bit her lip.

"Ray…just relax." She muttered and finally pulled down his pants. Ray's eyes widened and he sucked in a breath as she began to touch him.

He started to feel the pleasure and he went cross-eyed, moaning and throwing his head back in content.

His dream ended when the alarm went off and he fell out of his bed.

He didn't dare try to sleep again after that, afraid that he would be like Peter and talk in his sleep, revealing everything that was playing in his head. Which he definitely didn't want.

But Peter could tell something was off, but oddly he didn't say anything. They just climbed out of the car, grabbing the smoking containment box from the back of the car.

"That was fun…job well done." Peter grimaced sarcastically picking up two dead ducks from the back of the car, given to them by a Chinese man as payment.

"That's the oddest payment I've ever seen. But hey, at least we're getting food for the night." Ray said happily, trying to sound pleasant as Egon stretched and carried the containment box past Janine's desk.

He stopped and took a step back to look at her, "Any more calls?"

She looked up at him and smiled sweetly, "Yes actually, at The Rose. But they say you don't need to be there at any certain time." She said leaning on her hand. He nodded awkwardly and continued to carry the containment box down the stairs.

Peter walked up to Janine and looked at her.

"The Rose hm? Well we'll have a grand ol' time there. Any other calls?" he asked looking at her with a sly smile. Janine's smile dropped and her face grew sour.

"…. No Dr. Venkmen." She muttered and continued to write stuff down on paper, typing on the computer every once in a blue moon.

Peter sneered at her and let out a sigh, letting his face relax as he smiled at Ray who was leaning against the car, his back to the door. Peter's smile grew as he saw the front door open and one small, slender foot step-in, followed by a leg and a body.

Linda peered inside, her head barely inside. She knew one of them had to notice her, she saw them standing right there next to the car. She pulled in her other foot and quietly closed the door behind her as Peter noticed her, but Ray did not, and Egon was off somewhere. Janine was too encompassed in a book now that everything was quiet again.

"Why, hello. I see we have a little another client. One who…. Ohhh it's the Little Lady!" Peter grinned and Janine's eyes looked up from her book while Ray looked over his shoulder curiously. Ray's eyes widened and he turned his body completely around.

"Miss Sedgewick!" he smiled nervously, turning pink when he remembered his dream.

_Oh good, I didn't have to say anything…_ she thought to herself as she smiled at all of them.

"Good afternoon boys." She said holding her coat closed, walking towards them until she was standing next to Ray who was looking between her and Peter. Peter held out his hand and she shook it quickly.

"I expect that you're here to pay us?" Peter asked, letting go of her hand and holding it out.

Ray reached out and touched Peter's shoulder, "Now Venkmen, what if this is an emergency. Are there any other ghosts ma'am?" he asked, looking at Linda who just smiled and Peter pointed at her.

"She's too happy for it to be an emergency! She's happy to pay us Ray!" he said quickly, holding out his hand again.

Linda looked at his hand and laughed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the wad of money, playing it in his hand. Ray just stared at the money incredulously.

"Told you she wanted to pay us…though I don't think this is enough. It's very lightweight for five thousand dollars. I thought I asked for this all to be in one's." Peter asked, eyeing her, his tone purely sarcastic.

Linda smiled and laughed.

"Believe me, it's five thousand dollars. I counted it all by myself." She said sweetly, just as sarcastic as he was, batting her eyes lashes and grinning stupidly.

Peter smirked and Ray began to smile as well.

"Miss Sedgewick, thank you for actually getting the money to us. We didn't think you'd actually try and pay us!" Ray laughed and Peter nodded.

"Yeah, when we saw you we knew you were some kind of charlatan." Peter said in his usually sarcastic/serious tone. Yet again confusing Linda. She just smirked and looked at Ray.

"You're very welcome Dr. Stantz, and please, call me Linda." She smiled holding out her hand for him to shake, which he did with a smile.

"Only if you call me Ray." He shrugged, feeling more comfortable now knowing that she was feeling just as comfortable. Peter looked between them smirking as Egon walked up next to him.

Egon stared from Peter to the money to Linda. He reached down and grabbed the money, "Good, money. We need more hydrofluoric acid to clean up the ecto-goo that's been forming around the containment center. If the diameter of it gets any larger, the acid will cost more then five thousand dollars." He said monotonously. Linda raised her brows and smiled, snickering a bit at Peter's face.

He looked over his shoulder at Egon who had turned around to leave with the money.

"Hey…can't I at least keep a Benjamin? Can't I buy this lady a drink!" he called and Egon turned around to look at Linda who just lifted her hand to wave.

Egon sighed and, looking reluctant, walked back to her, took her hand and shook it. Linda laughed as she shook his hand and she smiled at him.

"Linda." She said plainly.

"Egon." He replied back, smirking.

She figured that if she kept things short he would enjoy her more. He seemed more interested in science then in friends or women. The only people he seemed "interested" in were Peter and Ray. And possibly Janine.

But Janine looked more interested in him as she glared at Linda and stared at the back of Egon's head. Linda let go of his hand and let him count the money as he turned to leave yet again.

Ray shrugged, "Well, thanks again for getting the money to us. We obviously really needed it…Linda." He said simply, feeling happy to actually say (and know) her first name.

_He's so cute._ Linda thought to herself as she nodded.

"In other words, I think Ray here wants you to leave." Peter nodded in Ray's direction. Ray looked at him in frustration.

"What? No! I didn't mean that!" he said looking at Linda fearfully.

Linda lifted her hand, "It's fine Ray, I know what you meant. I was just wondering if I could…stay here for a while?" she asked nervously, looking between the two men who just looked at each other.

"Well…I don't know about that…we have to get ready to go catch something at The Rose—" Ray began, trying to "break it to her easy".

But Peter thought otherwise. He patted Ray's shoulder and shook his head.

"No, that's alright! We've got time! Stay as long as you want! But you know…if you're skipping your duties at the hotel…." Peter warned and Linda quickly shook her head.

"No, no! Of course not! I—have the day off!" she said immediately, walking past them and further into the building. She stood next to the couch and spun around to look at them, "How about a tour?" she called, throwing her arms up in excitement, her voice echoing against the walls.

The two men looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Ray shrugged and Peter nodded.

"We think you're trying to avoid work. And we don't like pretending to be entertainment for you. We are very serious about our work." Peter said in that tone again. Linda dropped her hands to her sides and sighed, looking at the floor.

"I'm not trying to use you guys as entertainment." She muttered, looking back up at them tiredly.

Ray watched her closely as she walked towards them again, watching the floor, kicking the ground as she walked.

"I just…I'm not satisfied with my life at the hotel." She shrugged and Peter raised his brows.

"Aw…sounds like you need a man." He smirked and Linda rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. I _know_ it's not that, and you can _tell_ that it's not that. Right now, in my room, I have a large book about Parapsychology. I can't—even _tell_ you how interesting it is! I mean—you guys do that stuff, and interact with the things in that book while I'm just stuck behind a desk reading it! I won't be able to go out in the fields in Greece and Egypt until next year, and that's _if_ my paper about the connection between ghosts and dig sites is acceptable."

Peter squinted at her.

"'Dig Sites'?" he asked and she nodded.

"I studied to become an archeologist." She muttered as she ran her hand through her hair.

Ray looked around the building as silence fell over them. He set his hands on his hips, trying to think of what to do as Janine started typing on the keyboard wildly. None of them noticed Egon standing in the back doorway again.

He eyeballed the three of them just standing there and he sucked in a breath.

"She could help us with funding. And possibly with money management." He shrugged, holding a calculator after calculating acid costs.

Peter looked at Egon and proceeded to squint at him.

"Funding?"

"Yes Peter. It appears that she has enough money tucked away to pay us five thousand dollars in cash. If she joins any part of our team, we have enough money—possibly—to pay for better equipment. And if she's has enough time she could manage the costs as well. If she's up to it." He said monotonously as he stepped forward.

Linda sucked in a breath and grinned, finding his words unbelievable.

"OH—THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU DR SPENG—I MEAN—EGON!" she cried as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck and stood on her tip-toes to hug him tightly. She could already feel the glare from Janine.

She pulled away and kissed his cheek. She turned and ran to Peter, hugging him as well, almost knocking him over, "YOU WON'T REGRET THIS!" she cried out before kissing his cheek.

She spun on her toes and ran to Ray kissing his cheek before hugging him, holding him tightly, "YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO ME!" she squealed.

She pushed away from him, seeing his face was set in pure shock as she grinned at all of them, practically skipping to the door.

"I'll be here tomorrow, ready to do anything you need! I—I'll even bring more money! You can count on it! THANK YOU!" she yelped happily, almost jumping out the door as she waved excitedly.

They all just stared at the door. Egon blinking every once in a while, Peter smiling stupidly, Ray with his mouth hanging open in shock, his cheeks flushing into a bright pink. Peter turned to him.

"Man…that chick can scream." He muttered and Ray just watched the door.

Egon just blinked, his face actually giving off a feeling of "What did I just get us into?".

Linda on the other hand was running down the street, a grin planted on her face, panting heavily as she ran through people. She hoped that she could find something fun to do to finish the day, so the next will come sooner, and she will be one step closer to actually having fun, one step closer to having good evidence for her paper, and one step closer to having friends.

No matter how pathetic that sounded, she knew it to be true. And she was happy.


	10. Light On Feet, Butterflies in Stomach

**I'm so happy with how inspired I am to keep writing.**

**I've never had such an urge.**

**And it's great to have my TV and playstation set up in my room so I can watch Ghostbusters to keep the ideas flowing.**

**Hopefully you're all satisfied.**

**That would make me just as satisfied.**

**But I tried to make this one…more about Linda's feelings about the "Ghostbusters"**

***cough cough* RAY *cough cough***

"I'm feeling so light-headed, I can't believe this is real! They've hired me for funding, I'm being used as an appeal!" Linda grinned spinning around in Dana's kitchen as Dana cut up vegetables and drank champagne.

Dana just laughed and shook her head.

"And you must be happy enough to speak in rhymes. You do realize that they are _using_you for money right?" she asked, shrugging and reaching for another stick of celery as Linda turned up the radio.

She just shrugged and continued to spin and pretend to dance with someone that wasn't there. The Casey Kasem show had just gotten back from commercial and Linda enjoyed listening to him when she was at Dana's.

Dana took a glance over her shoulder, "Not too loud or my neighbors will complain again," she sighed and Linda just kept dancing to Casey's intro.

The music faded and there was a pause before his recognizable voice sauntered through their ears, happy, cheerful and ready for the news. He gave his regular greeting and his welcome back's, and started off with the weather and traffic.

Linda stopped mid-dance to listen to the top-news, which started immediately after the traffic. The point between traffic and the news always had some type of musical limbo. But not this time.

"_Still making headlines all across the country, the Ghostbusters are at it again—"_

"Dana, Dana listen! They're on the news!" Linda squealed and Dana just took another long sip of champagne.

"—_this time at the fashionable dance club The Rose—"_

"Dana, Dana! That's where they were gonna go right before they hired me!"

"—_The boys in gray slugged it out with a pretty pesty poltergeist, then stayed on to dance the night away with some of the lovely ladies that witnessed the disturbance—"_

Dana rolled her eyes as Linda let out a long sigh.

"That must've been amazing…." She muttered, her voice sounding pleased with the news.

"What, the poltergeist or the night with the "lovely ladies"?" Dana laughed taking the last sip of champagne before reaching for the bottle again. She poured herself another glass as Linda just huffed at her and continued to dance around, like she was waltzing with a ghost.

She twirled around Dana as Dana reached over and turned the volume down on the radio and switched the channel to music. Linda just hummed to herself as Dana was now preparing a stew, putting all of her chopped vegetables into a pot.

Roughly, Dana set her hands down on the counter as Linda spun past her, humming some type of romantic ballad that she must've come up with on her own. She rotated her head to look at Linda who pretended to be dipped.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Linda twirled and posed on her toes for a moment, "Dancing," she muttered with a smile, and she gracefully fell onto the balls of her feet and continued to dance, her waltz now becoming a ballet.

Dana just rolled her eyes nodded her head, "Well yes. I can see that. But _why_?"

Both women shrugged as Dana asked her question. Linda closed her eyes and performed an arabesque penchee. Dana rolled her eyes.

"If you're going to do that, please don't kick anything!"

"I'm doing it because…I'm trying to entertain your ghost." Linda snorted as she pretended to be dipped yet again and she patted the door of the refrigerator.

She snorted as Dana's hand flew up to her forehead and rubbed it, "Oh my God Linda, I had just forgotten about that, I already feel crazy enough." She whined and Linda grinned happily.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm actually doing it because I'm picturing myself _also_ dancing at The Rose. I haven't been there in _years_! Imagine what it would've been like knowing that there was poltergeist there when I was 17!" Linda grinned, shivering just thinking about it.

Dana stuck a spoon into the pot and started to stir it, nodding her head.

"So…you were picturing yourself dancing at The Rose. With the Ghostbusters by chance?" Dana asked cheekily and Linda nodded, ignoring her tone slightly.

"Yes." She muttered as she closed her eyes and danced again.

"…you think that because they hired you to fund them…they're going to bring you along to missions? I doubt they're going to let you go to some fancy place like The Rose with them and then allow you to "dance the night away" with dashing men." Dana snickered and Linda narrowed her eyes.

"I never said that. I was just…thinking about dancing with there." She muttered defensively and Dana raised a brow, smirking as she dropped the contents of a box of noodles into the pot.

"I see…are you…planning on dancing with anyone certain?" she asked and Linda stopped dancing for a moment.

"Well…no. But it would be fun to dance the Ghostbusters I guess…so—maybe I was picturing myself at The Rose with them! And—maybe I am dancing with a dashing man in my head!" Linda grumbled and Dana laughed.

"Oh-ho! Getting so defensive!" she mocked and Linda stuck her tongue out at her.

She did a few more ballet-esque moves, twirling and pirouetting. Dana just watched her from the corner of her eyes for a minute or two before thinking about how Linda always got excited about everything that had to do with the Ghostbusters.

"You know…they are pretty interesting people." She suggested and Linda nodded, "Quite."

"That Dr. Venkmen—"

"Peter."

"—Peter. He sure is interesting. He reminds me of a game show host. He'd be fun to dance with." She offered and Linda nodded, "Yeah, he kinda does. He's funny."

That wasn't good enough for Dana, "what about that tall one? With the glasses? He seems like a pretty…interesting dance partner. Nice…quiet…mysterious." She offered as well, but Linda only nodded again, still dancing, "Egon? He does like to keep to himself doesn't he."

Dana huffed quietly, not to show that she was getting irritated. She was prying but Linda just wasn't biting.

"How about the last one? The one with the car—"

"Ray." Linda replied quickly.

"—Ray…he seems like he's pretty light on his feet." Dana finally offered and Linda nodded.

"Mmm…yeah he does." Linda said quietly, spinning elegantly. Dana's mouth dropped open and she turned to look at Linda who did another arabesque penchee.

"You want to dance with that Ray fellow! You want to do more then just work with the Ghostbusters—you want to "DANCE" with that Ray!" Dana laughed and Linda lost her balanced and bumped into the cabinets, partially catching herself with her hands placed firmly on the counters.

"Pardon me?" she gasped, looking at her incredulously.

Dana just shrugged, and stared at her expectantly, "You heard me."

Linda just scoffed at her and walked to the kitchen door, pushing it open. Dana followed her.

"Where are you going?" she asked and Linda slipped her arms through her coat sleeves.

"I have to go to work. The Ghostbusters are expecting me." She said quietly and as her face began to feel hot. She walked as fast as possible to Dana's front door and opened it roughly. She closed it just as harshly and pounded her way down the hall.

Louis poked his head out the door and lifted his hand to wave.

"Hi Linda—"

"Not now Louis." Linda ordered as she took hard steps to the elevator.

Eventually she had made it to the Headquarters and stepped inside less carefully. She felt as though she could actually walk inside without feeling like she was trespassing on private property. Janine sat at her desk, talking non-stop on the phone with clients. Peter sat at his desk in the back, Linda knew because she could see the top of his head.

She walked up to Janine's desk slowly and Janine only peered up at her. She motioned over to the couch which Linda just sort of stared at. She nodded and walked over to the dirty old couch and sat down patiently.

Peter wasn't doing anything important for he noticed Linda immediately and jogged his way over to the couch, pushing the little swinging door open and jumping over the back of the couch to sit with her.

"Why, hello." He grinned and Linda smirked, chuckling to herself.

"Hi there."

"I see that…you've managed to make it here on time." He said looking at a non-existent watch on his wrist. Linda looked from his wrist to his face and nodded.

"I guess so. One of my better traits." She smirked as she heard footsteps behind them. They both looked over their shoulders and saw Egon.

Egon still had his nose stuck in a calculator.

"How's Ray coming along?" he asked.

Egon looked up, "…it's going fine. But he's not satisfied with his tie. I left him to take care of it himself, I need to go check some figures."

Peter nodded and Linda felt the couch shift as Peter pushed himself off of it and around it, yelling in Egon's directions, "I like how you never specify what figures."

Linda stood up as well, smoothing out her coat and following him. Peter began to walk up a flight of stairs that Egon has most likely gone up.

"Where are you going?"

"To go help Ray. He's a little clothingly challenged." He muttered, his voice sounding annoyed.

"…so what do you want me to do? What should I start on?"

Peter stopped midway up the stairs and he turned to her. He eyed her for a second like he had to think about this decision. He rubbed his chin and looked her up and down. She did the same like she had something all over her coat.

"What?"

"…do you know how to tie ties?" he asked.

Linda sucked in a breath and shrugged, letting it out slowly as her arms fell to her sides with a slap, "Well—yes—but what does that have to do with—"

"You go help Ray. I will go do other stuff that does not have to do with Ray." He said walking back down the stairs, watching the steps carefully as they switched places. Once he reached the last step she made her way up them waving to him as he walked back to his desk to most likely do nothing.

She took slow strides, two steps at a time, setting her foot down gently onto the creaky wooden steps. They seemed like they were closer to breaking with every creak they made. Ray had heard the creaks and naturally he called out to whoever was making them.

"Hey, Egie, do you think I should go with the _brown_ tie? Or the _green_ tie?" he called and Linda stopped, not knowing whether she should say anything. After no acknowledgement from Ray about the silence, she continued until she had reached the top level.

Her hand reached out to touch the wall, not really to keep balance, but more-of a support system, like it was helping pull her along.

She walked closer and closer to the open door and finally stepped in. Ray stood at a mirror, holding up two very crinkly ties up to his neck to see which would look better. Now Linda kind of understood why Peter had decided to send her up there. She knew which tie would look better.

"I say you where the green tie." She offered.

Ray jumped and almost dropped the ties to the ground as he saw her reflection in the mirror of her standing in the doorway.

"Miss Sedgewi—I mean, Linda!" he stuttered and Linda smiled. She untied her coat and pulled it off of her arms, tossing it onto one of the beds.

He looked down at the ties. "You really think I should choose the green one?" he asked with a smile and she nodded.

"Of course! If you went with the brown it would be too much. Like a blotch on the front of that nice green shirt! If you chose the green tie, it would blend in and look much nicer. Much more impressive." She grinned taking the brown tie from him and examining it. He turned back to the mirror and held up the green tie to his neck.

"Then I guess I'm going with green." He laughed. Linda smiled and set the brown tie on the bed.

"Good. So why are you getting all dressed up?"

Ray chuckled. "I'm going on television for an interview. They wanted me to arrive in my suit but I didn't think that would be appropriate. They're just gonna ask me some questions about ghosts probably. I don't know what's so hard to understand about them though."

Linda laughed and took the green tie from him.

"Well, people don't know as much as you." She chuckled as she grabbed his shoulders and turned him in her general direction. He surprisingly didn't blush or turn red at her touch, he, again, felt comfortable.

"Is that bad?"

"I don't think so. As long as you don't rub it in there faces, knowing more could make you a more…endearing person." She shrugged as she lifted his chin and played with his collar so she could wrap the tie around his neck and tie it correctly.

Ray just cocked his head a bit and nodded in agreement.

"I guess so. I just wonder how I'm going to answer stupid questions. Or at least questions I think are stupid. They're probably going to ask my opinions about things and then get mad at me about it." He complained as Linda squinted at his tie, biting her lip as she tied it.

He eyed her and tried not to smile as she finished and patted it down before fixing his collar. "There you go." She muttered. He kept his chin raised high as he turned back to the mirror. He rubbed down his tie and smiled.

"Thank you!" he grinned.

"You're very welcome. And about your opinion problem? Just—make them think they're right I guess I should say. I do that all the time. I do love to argue about my opinion, but if you _don't_ want to get into an argument just…don't agree with them, or contradict them too much. Just make them think they're right. It always works for me." She shrugged as she sit down on the bed.

Ray eyed her through the mirror as he adjusted his tie so it was a bit looser on his neck.

To him, no matter what she said she seemed smart. For a "hotel heiress", as Peter called her, she was as smart as any woman came. To her he must've given off an intellectual asshole vibe, because he was so much into science while she actually had knowledge about interaction with people. Not dead people or ghosts. Actual people.

He felt his stomach as he felt the jitters. His body must've known that it was almost time for the interview. He was going to be on TV and everyone was going to judge his opinion. Hopefully not Linda.

Linda stood up and patted his shoulder.

"Well, I hope you have a good interview. I'll be making sure to watch it." She grinned and Ray swallowed bile that suddenly crawled up his throat.

She turned to leave, not before eyeing him again while she stopped in the doorway. He noticed this and smiled at her. She smiled back and looked down at her feet before leaving the doorway.

Suddenly, she stopped herself. She felt she should say something else. So quietly she backed up and stuck her head back in, holding the door frame.

"Oh and by the way?"

Ray rotated his body to look at her.

"You look great. The ladies in the audience are sure the love ya'." She teased, winking at him. This time Ray turned pink and he smiled sheepishly.

"Thanks."

She just smiled and began to leave again. She felt butterflies erupt in her stomach and she rubbed them away. His nervousness must've been getting to her. Now she was afraid he would mess up.

Or. It was something else entirely different.


	11. You Must Like Things Dangerous

**I don't know when I'll post this one.**

**I realized that, halfway through the movie, I hadn't really thought everything out.**

**Like…I didn't know how I wanted everything to play out.**

**I knew how I wanted it to end?**

**But from the meeting to the end…I didn't know how to get Linda in there without making it awkward or not making it work.**

**Hopefully I can convey everything as well as I hope.**

**And, shout out to JolietJane:**

**YOU MAKE ME WANT TO WRITE MORE!**

**My gosh! You give such nice reviews and they make me want to continue, just popping out stories one after the other.**

**Thank you, thank you, thank you! **

The first thing Linda thought after two days of working with the Ghostbusters was:

_What the hell are my parents going to think? When the hell are they even going to get home?_

Answering the second question was tougher then answering the first one. She hadn't heard from them since they had left, which meant they were still partying with Tony and his new wife. The first question, though, she knew she could probably answer it all on her own.

They would most likely disapprove of her working with "slobs" or "heathens" or with "the enemy". But that was only their answer because they were gone. They probably hadn't even heard of any of the Ghostbusters achievements while down in the Bahamas.

She figured they must be arriving at some point. They had been gone a very long time and they had only told her that they'd be gone for a week.

But, nonetheless, Linda was going to go to work at the Headquarters as usual. She would go in casual clothes and not in fancy-wear. This was a perk, because she felt so at home with them, especially when she was in casual clothing.

She stood in the elevator patiently, her coat slung over her arm as she stood in sandals, jeans and a comfy t-shirt. Her hair was messy, her face wasn't caked with too much make-up and her nails weren't totally polished. She smiled to herself as the elevator did _not_ stop at level 12.

The elevator let out it's usual ding and the doors opened just as slowly. She stepped out, nodding and smiling and giving a happy hello to people who were climbing into the elevators.

Hurriedly, she passed the front desk and she tapped it, waving at Jarvis who just lifted his hand and sneered at her. She rolled her eyes and smirked at his immature reaction to her new job, but what did she expect.

Before she made it to the door she looked down at her coat and large shoulder bag, checking things to make sure she didn't drop any of her belongings. She didn't, luckily, so she smiled and sighed contently and looked up at the front door.

"Honeyyy!" a high voice called and Linda slowed her pace to a stop, staring wide-eyed at the front door where her parents stood, her step-mothers arms thrown to the Heavens like she was expecting a hug.

"My little girl!" her father grinned holding his arms out in front of him, walking towards her and pulling her into a hug.

"Oof—hi daddy…." She muttered, her face still dropped in surprise, her step-mother giggling happily as her father patted her back ferociously.

He pushed himself away, holding onto her shoulders, "how are you doing baby girl?" he asked and Linda just looked around.

"I'm going…..fine…I guess…." She muttered, smiling awkwardly.

She looked over their shoulders and saw Tony walking through the door. He had her eyes, a trait they had gained from her father, but because he had Colleen as a mother and not Linda's birth mother he had blonde-ish hair, not black.

He trudged past them, his hands in his pocket and a look of utter depression on his face. Linda lifted her hand to wave at him.

"Hey Tony….Where's the wife?" She said and he just glared at her. She flinched and looked back at her dad and step-mother. She narrowed her eyes, "what happened?" she asked suspiciously.

Her father's smile dropped and he began to look smug. Colleen just rubbed her forehead, looking just worried and beat up.

"Let me guess. The Bahamas—or, the _wife_—not all she was cracked up to be?" she asked crossing her arms and her father hesitated before nodding. He stuck his hands in his pockets.

"The ceremony was absolutely beautiful, the drinks tasted absolutely amazing, the service at our glorious sister hotel The Ramis was outstanding…and we weren't, apparently, the only ones who thought so." He muttered.

Linda glared between them, thinking about how he had put that sentence. He obviously put a clue to their depression in there inconspicuously. Suddenly it came to her and she smirked, just lifting her head to begin a nod.

"Ohhhh, I see. The wife had her eyes on a worker. What a nice choice for a woman, Tony always chooses the most lady-like doesn't he." She teased, not feeling as sorry for them anymore. "So, when did this happen?"

"It happened right after the wedding. They went to their hotel room and Tony said he had to go to the bathroom. So he did, right as room service showed up."

She tried her best to hold back a laugh, "Oh. The slut ran away with the room service guy." She laughed and Colleen gasped.

"Linda! How dare you use that language!"

She let out an incredulous laugh, "I'm sorry! I can't help but call her what she is! I hope he files for divorce, because I don't think the people down at the Country Club would appreciate Tony being married to a bigamist. If she gets married to the room service guy that is." She shrugged and did her best to try and walk around them.

It was their turn to watch her incredulously.

"Now where do you think you're going?" her step-mother asked. Linda just shrugged.

"Out."

"No. You are supposed to be at work! Where are your work clothes?" her father asked, his hands set on his hips now as he glared at her doubtfully. She turned to look at them, not fearing their judgment.

"Okay. I _am_ going to work. I _am_ wearing my work clothes. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be late." She said and her parents just shook their heads. They seemed to be fine with her saying that she was going to work, but they obviously weren't fine with her outfit of choice.

Colleen stared her up and down, "You're going to work in _that_? You think that's appropriate for work? Do you think people, especially your Boss is going to like you when you come to work in clothing like that?" she huffed and Linda looked down at her outfit. She tugged at her shirt, looking at the fun and colorful print on it. It was flowy and, she guessed, not too appropriate, even for the Ghostbusters.

"My Boss? I have three…." she asked quietly and her mother nodded.

"_THREE_? You cannot have three." Colleen laughed disbelievingly. Linda looked between them. Technically at the hotel she had two bosses: her dad and Colleen. But she wasn't going to point that out.

If she had to choose though, she knew who was technically her Boss. Even if Peter thought otherwise.

"Well…Ray thinks this looks nice." She muttered nervously and her father gasped.

"You're on a first name basis with your _BOSS_? Honey, are you giving him more then just being a good employee?" her father asked, grabbing her arm and tugging it roughly, as though he was trying to pull her away from the door.

Linda turned pink, understanding his assumptions. With her free arm she tore at his hand and pried it off of her arm.

"Daddy no!" she gasped, not liking the assumption one bit. It made her feel uncomfortable.

"Then why did you call him Ray? Is that his first name? Why do you call him by his first name?"

"Daddy I have to go! I'm going to be late!"

"For what? A booty call—"

"DADDY!" she shrieked, feeling like some embarrassed teenage girl, she felt completely caught off guard.

"Darling, we told you to find someone right for you, but we didn't mean someone in your professional life!" Colleen cried out, feeling just as embarrassed by Linda as Linda was by her father.

Linda just looked between them and glared at them, stepping closer to the door.

"We'll talk about it later! I need to get to work. GOOD-BYE." She growled, pushing her way through the doors.

Her parents just watched the door. Staring at where she stood. Their faces were blank so Linda knew that even if they did show some kind of emotion it would've been that they had hoped she either wouldn't come back, or that she would come back being the perfect child.

Like that was ever going to happen.

They always overreacted to these things.

The taxi drive was interesting. Being in a taxi with some smelly driver actually made her smile. It perked up her mood seeing as how she was getting further away from the hotel and her parents. Something that always made her happy. At least she wasn't going to Dana's. She was still mad at her for assuming she liked Ray, just on the spot. They're colleagues. Linda had no feelings of that kind towards him.

She had watched his interview the other day though, and she felt bad for all of the random questions he was asked. Questions that were trying to be funny but weren't made both Ray _and_ Linda feel uncomfortable.

"How is Elvis and have you seen him lately? Did he _really_ expect you to answer that?" she had asked him. He just laughed and shrugged before lighting a smoke.

But Linda was happy to see the Headquarters knowing she would be there the next day, and the next day. When she stepped out of the taxi there was a man standing out in front of the place, holding a newspaper. He was dressed like he was ready for an interview. Must've been someone looking for the job.

She walked up to him and touched his shoulder, startling him, "Excuse me. Hi. Are you here for an interview?" she asked and he smiled at her awkwardly.

"Actually, yes I am. I just didn't know if it was alright to go in. There's no….open sign or anything." He laughed and she laughed encouragingly.

"Oh they're always open. Come on in. I'm Linda Sedgewick." She smiled, holding out her hand as they walked in step to the front door.

"Winston Zeddmore." He replied and Linda nodded.

She grabbed the door handle and held it open for him. He thanked her and they walked in one by one towards Janine's desk. The Ghostbusters were out, minus Egon, whose suit was still in his locker. He was still messing with the containment center downstairs, where he kept mumbling to himself about over-storage and some kind of build-up.

Linda walked up to Janine's desk and smiled.

"Hi Janine. This man, Winston Zeddmore, is here for an interview." She grinned and Winston waved to her. Janine motioned to the chair on the other side of the desk.

"Alright. I'm just going to ask you a couple of basic questions and then we'll begin with things you know about the paranormal. Oh, and Linda, there is a man from the EPA in Dr. Venkman's office." Janine said reaching out for Linda's arm as Linda walked around the desk to set her bag down.

She squinted at her confused, "well what does that have to do with me?" she asked and Janine shrugged.

"Dr. Venkman has practically made you his personal assistant since they haven't been needing money yet. I thought I just should've let ya' know." She muttered and turned back to Winston, ending the conversation at that.

Linda looked around and shrugged carelessly. She pushed through the swinging door into Peter's office and she set her bag down next to some cabinets that Peter probably hadn't filled yet.

She walked over the a small chair that was deemed "hers" and she picked up any piece of paper that must've been set there for her to look over. Most likely costs of things. They had learned right after Ray left for his interview that she could tell whether they were asking for too much or for too little per ghost.

A paper on top was a sheet that said the bill for one place that had both a poltergeist and anonymous free-floating entity. The price had come to two thousand dollars for containing both ghosts, and eight thousand dollars for capturing both of them (five thousand dollars for the poltergeist, three thousand dollars for the entity). Linda sneered down at it. Ray must've done the dealing because Peter would've charged much more.

Her eye's still on the paper, she turned to walk towards Peter's desk so she could sticky-note it. A man stood up from beside the desk and pulled out his hands from his pockets and flattened his coat.

"Hello miss." He said loudly and Linda jumped, almost dropping the paper.

She stared at him shocked and she began to chuckle nervously, having not noticed him, still startled that he was even there.

"Oh my Gosh…she wasn't kidding when she said that someone was here. Hi, I'm Linda. I'm…Dr. Venkman's personal assistant…." She said hesitantly, not exactly liking the title, but it sounded better then personal funder.

"My name is Walter Peck. I am from the EPA." He said holding out his hand and Linda looked down at it. She had done a lot of handshaking in this building.

"EPA?" she questioned.

Mr. Peck chuckled and nodded, "The Environmental Protection Agency." He said and he stuck his hand out farther, insisting she shake. So she hesitantly took it and began to shake it. But instead he bent over and kissed her knuckles lightly.

"It is nice to meet you…Linda." He grinned, trying to seem charming. Linda just sneered at him, not finding him the least bit pleasant. She just slipped her hand out of his and rubbed it.

"It's nice to meet you too. Now, why are you here exactly?"

He straightened up, coughing, "I have come to inspect the premises. The people in our group believe that your operation does not use very safe methods in this building or while on the job." He said and Linda glared at him.

"And…what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means we don't think as you do. What you think is right, we think is wrong. At least for the environment. We think you are poisoning people with gases to make them believe that something is haunting them so they can call you and you can take their money." He explained nonchalantly, all while Linda crossed her arms and glared at him.

She leaned against Peter's desk as she muttered, "that's a very dangerous theory Mr. Peck. One that, neither I _or_ Dr. Venkman will take lightly."

Mr. Peck just chuckled and took a step towards her, getting too close for a professional meeting. She examined him up and down as he stared into her face, "I have a feeling you like things dangerous, seeing as how you are exposed to these gases everyday. You probably believe all of this true. And that's why I am here…to help you." He smiled slyly, making her shiver that he had more intentions then just "exposing" dangerous things that could harm the environment.

Linda stood up straight and looked into his eyes.

"I do like things dangerous I guess. But if you want dangerous, I suggest you wait until Dr. Venkman arrives and then you can take this matter up with him." She said quietly and she slid herself out from between him and the desk. She walked quickly towards the swinging door and she pushed it open with her foot so she could just walk right through it.

She didn't look back at him, for fear of making him think she was either up to something or that she was getting a little too into him.

Right as she walked up to Janine's desk to check in on the interview, the large doors opened and the Ecto-1 drove in. Linda's eyes looked at the car, darting from the passenger to the driver, not knowing which seat Peter would've been in.

He ended up climbing out of the passenger seat as Ray climbed out of the driver's seat with two smoking containment centers.

"I gotta get some sleep. I'm dying." Ray complained through a lit cigarette.

"You don't look good." Peter replied, to which Ray quickly answered, "I don't?"

"Well, you've looked better…you didn't used to look like this." Peter shrugged as Janine's phones started to ring and Winston stared at them awkwardly, both of them covered in glue.

Linda looked down at the desk and grabbed a stack of papers, knowing they were that night's worksheets.

"Here's the paper on the Brooklyn. She paid with VISA." Peter mumbled through his cigarette, tossing the papers to Linda instead of Janine. Linda just caught them, barley, and held them with her free hand. The other's held the work sheets.

She held them out to Ray, "Ray, here's tonight's worksheets."

"Great. Two more free-repeaters." Ray whined and Linda chuckled.

"Oh come on, you know it's worth it." She teased pushing his shoulder, which he looked over and grinned her sheepishly. He laughed through his cigarette and Linda looked over the file cabinets at Mr. Peck who was eyeing the group.

Another shiver went down her spine, Peter even watching her as Janine introduced Winston to the men.

"This is Winston Zeddmore, he's here about the job." She pointed and Ray looked him up and down, then looking at Linda who shrugged and nodded.

"Beautiful. You're hired. Ray Stantz, Pete Venkman." Ray introduced, pointing at himself and Peter with his handful of papers.

"Congratulations." Peter muttered shaking his hand.

"Can you help me please?" he asked holding out the two containment boxes to Winston. Winston stared at them before cradling his hands allowing Ray to drop the boxes into them. "Welcome aboard." He grinned and Linda snorted at Winston's confused expression.

Linda watched as Ray disappeared with Winston and she ran around Janine's desk to Peter who looked at her with a blank expression, not surprised she was acting weird. She looked back at Peter's office but she couldn't see Mr. Peck.

"Peter, a man from the EPA is here. He's waiting in your office."

"…EPA? What's he want?"

"I don't know…something about the Environment obviously." She muttered, blanking on what he was even there for. She lead him around Janine's desk, deciding to wait at the door to Peter's office as Janine complained about needing more help besides Linda.

Peter gave her some unsatisfactory answer and Janine stayed mad for the rest of the day. Peter eventually lead Linda back into the office to meet Mr. Peck, Linda staying close behind him.

"Can I help you?" he asked as he approached Mr. Peck, who was sitting down again.

He sucked in a breath before standing up, "I'm Walter Peck. I represent the Environmental Protection Agency, the third district." He smirked, shaking Peter's hand.

Peter let go of his hand, "Great. How's it going down there?" he asked, patting Mr. Peck's shoulder leaving both residue of slime on both his hand _and_ his coat. Mr. Peck just sneered at it, then at Peter's back in disgust.

"Are you Peter Venkman?" he asked stupidly as Linda walked around Peter's desk so she could stay close to him at all times. She decided to stay standing so she could seem like she knew what she was doing. She really didn't.

"Yes I'm…Dr. Venkman." Peter paused and Linda smirked to herself.

"Exactly _what_ are you a doctor of, Mr. Venkman?" Peck asked, setting his hands on his hips.

"Well, I have Ph.D.'s in parapsychology _and_ psychology." He said in serious/sarcastic tone, but Linda knew he was being serious. She didn't doubt that Peter knew what he was doing.

"I see." Peck said, in a tone that was sarcastic, but that he was finally understanding something.

"And now, you catch ghosts." He said pacing across the room. Peter narrowed his eyes, "Yeah, you could say that."

Mr. Peck spun around, "and how many ghosts have you caught, Mr. Venkman?"

Peter shrugged, "I'm not at liberty to say."

Linda looked up at Mr. Peck who just stared back at Peter, no completely phased.

"And where do you put…these ghosts once you catch them?"

"Into a storage facility." Peter, again, shrugged, like all of Peck's questions were no big deal.

"And would this storage facility be located on these premises?" Peck asked, beginning to pace again. Peter just nodded, staring at him bored, "Yes."

"…And may I see this storage facility?" Peck asked expectantly.

"No." Peter answered simply, not really having to think about it.

Mr. Peck stayed quiet and that worried Linda, afraid he was planning on blowing up for no particular reason at any point. Especially with all of the answers that Peter was giving him, he was obviously not satisfied.

"And why not Mr. Venkman?" he asked, sounding stony and cold.

Peter paused, staring at Peck with his version of a suspicious glare, a blank face. His tone was all he need when he said, "Because you did not use the magic word."

Peck walked back to the desk and sat in the chair opposite of him.

"What is…the magic word, Mr. Venkman?" he asked, smiling like this was all a joke. He eyed Linda before resuming his staring at Peter.

Peter just stared at him wide-eyed.

"'Please'."

Peck just laughed, "…may I please see the storage facility, Mr. Venkman?" he smiled.

Peter's eyebrows dropped.

"Why do you want to see the storage facility?" he asked quietly, seemingly tired of Peck's questions that just danced around what he really wanted to talk about.

"Well, because I'm curious…I want to know more about what you do here." Peck said, raising his voice and shifting around in his seat. Linda did the same, trying to get comfortable leaning against cabinets.

"Frankly, there've been a lot of wild stories in the media…and we want to assess any possible environmental impact…from your operation." He explained, getting angry.

Linda remembered what he had come for. The creep was talking about gases.

"For instance, the presence of noxious, possibly hazardous waste chemicals in your basement." He explained and Linda just nodded to herself still remembering.

"Now, you show me what is down there, or I come back with a court order." He snapped at Peter, who sat there motionless. Linda flinched at the idea of getting a court order. She walked up closer to Peter and touched his shoulder.

"Maybe—we should let him go down and look Peter—"

Peter suddenly stood up, setting his hands down on the table as he proclaimed:

"You go get a court order, and I'll sue your ass for wrongful prosecution!"

Peck did the same and stood up, getting in Peter's face.

"You can have it your way, Mr. Venkman."

That was the last he said before turning to storm out. Linda just stood there, her hands cradled to her chest, still shocked at Peter's sudden out burst. But Peter just shrugged it off and lead her downstairs to speak with the guys as Janine took more calls.

As they made there way down the steps, they could hear Ray talking worriedly.

"We could be on the verge of a fourfold cross-rip…a PKE surge of incredible, even dangerous, proportions." He said quickly before continuing to smoke again with Winston.

"_We_ just had a visit from the Environmental Protection Agency…."

Linda nodded her head.

"It didn't sound too good. I'm sorry Peter." She shrugged, crossing her arms.

"It's fine. But how's the grid holding up?" he asked, patting it. Egon shook his head, "Not good."

Winston pointed from Peter to Egon, "Tell him about the twinkie."

"Twinkie?" Linda asked, getting a bad taste in her mouth from the thought of the fatty treat.

Dramatically, Peter swung his head around and stared at Egon.

"What about the twinkie?"


	12. It Is Unquestionably A YES

**I am, literally, on a roll.**

**Yes. Literally.**

**I was so excited to get up here and type another chapter that I fell up the stairs and proceeded to roll down them again.**

**I know it doesn't sound fun, but I feel fine.**

**This is just another added chapter, mainly while Peter is at Dana's or whatever.**

It was now a Thursday. For two days they hadn't heard anything from Mr. Walter Peck, and Linda was partially glad. She didn't enjoy how uncomfortable he had made her feel when he had first arrived. It was unexpected and Linda just didn't enjoy his company in the first place.

Peter had seemed to forget though, and both he and Linda endured an explanation about the large size of a Twinkie if it represented the amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Linda had to have an extensive explanation because she didn't know what any of that stuff meant.

Now that she understood she didn't feel too worried. She knew that the group of men could handle it. Like any other citizen in New York she believed that they were like paranormal superstars. They could "do anything".

She expected them to at least. She understood that she had her own boundaries with the group because she hadn't been working there for too long, and she knew she had to respect them. And respecting them included believing that they could do anything.

_Right?_ Linda would question in her mind.

What she didn't expect though, was Peter leaving work early that evening. She was meant to stay late that night to go over all of the funding and bills from customers that she had been procrastinating about.

Her only excuse was that she was too encompassed in Egon's research. Which she was. He would walk around with his PKE meter and his calculator and he would do many tests on things that Linda didn't understand _why_ he would do those tests. He would mumble to himself and Linda would just snicker.

The others were just as amusing, like Winston and how he was always being made fun of for being the new guy and not being able to be called _Dr. _Zeddmore. And Peter was always the one making the fun, so the others couldn't really do anything. And Ray was made fun because of his enthusiasm.

"The Heart of the Ghostbusters", Peter would always call him

Which didn't make sense to Linda, why would anyone make fun of him for that.

But Peter had left early, right before Janine and Winston left. That just left Linda, Ray and Egon there by themselves. Linda wanted to stay and do all of the paperwork, Ray and Egon stayed because they had taken permanent bunk there.

Linda was sitting in a new desk that Winston had built, just a small desk about the size of a one-person school desk. She was looking at papers when Peter walked out from the bathroom in a nice suit.

She looked up at him and squinted, "Well don't you look fancy."

He looked down at his clothing and stared at her blankly, posing a few times.

"I do have very good tastes. Ladies can't keep themselves off of me." He said, Linda just smirking and shaking her head.

"And is there a specific lady that you have in mind?" she teased, raising a brow.

"…why, do you want to go?" he asked, raising his brow as well.

She just stared at him.

"…WELL IT'S TOO LATE. I already have a date! A-one, miss Dana Barrett! Our lovely, first client." He said loudly, turning away from her dramatically. Linda's eyes widened.

"You're taking—DANA?" she asked. He turned to her and raised his brow yet again.

"And that is so surprising because….?"

"Well—because it's Dana!" she laughed.

"Oh that's riiiight. I remember that you told me that you knew her. What a small world." He laughed and he turned to leave.

Linda just rubbed her head and looked around awkwardly. Peter had called up the stairs to say good-bye and then he left abruptly. It was now quiet, besides Janine's typing.

Soon, though, Janine left. Followed by Winston who came in and gave Linda a formal good-bye before catching a taxi for home. Linda was alone downstairs after that. At one point Egon did come downstairs to get something from Janine's desk, and then he called up to Ray, exclaiming that he was going downstairs with the containment center to do more tests. But silence was achieved yet again after Egon's footsteps faded.

To pass the time, Linda actually finished some work. She got most of the pile done, besides some things she needed to ask Peter about, which was only stuff about how he didn't always have set prices for certain things. She hoped she could at least advise him to do so, and maybe the paper-work would decrease and funding/money would increase.

But after she had finished she had become bored. And she certainly wasn't going home that early to sit with her depressed brother and her nagging parents. The past two nights that she had come home they had always asked about Ray. Things like:

"Why are you sleeping with him?"

"You should report that sexual maniac."

"When did you decide to actually get a love life?"

And the killer was actually from Tony who asked,

"How is it now that you're finally getting some?"

Linda just decided that she would wait for them to fall asleep until she would actually decide to find her way to the top floor of the hotel. She wouldn't even look at them when she saw them in the morning. They were trying to do the same thing.

_Speaking of Ray…_ Linda thought, and she pushed herself out of her chair, eyeing the stairs. She walked around Janine's desk and up to the stairs, which she climbed steadily. She kept turning her head to see if she could see up them better.

She arrived at the top and she took her time to look around the large room. In the middle of the room was a small table that was meant for 3 or 4 people to eat at, but only one person was. It was Ray. Linda could tell by his hair. And by the fact that Egon was still downstairs.

She took quiet steps to see exactly what he was doing, to Linda he seemed very focused on it.

Craning her neck, he saw that he was just reading a history book while eating cheap Thai food. She suddenly realized that she was starving and they were practically hiding the food from her.

"Hey!" she laughed and Ray almost jumped out of his seat. He looked over his shoulder just as Linda was reaching over it to grab his small box of food.

"So _this_ is what you've been doing for 2 hours! You've been keeping _food_ from me!" she said in mock astonishment as she grabbed an extra fork and sat down besides him.

"Oh—I—I didn't know you were still here! Otherwise we would've saved you some!" he chuckled quietly, closing the book and pointing at the empty boxes of food.

She shrugged, "that's okay. You can make it up to me by letting me eat the rest of this."

Ray just shrugged as well and pointed at the box, "go ahead!"

Linda smirked and licked her lips after taking in a fork full of food. She chowed down on the small amount left and stared at Ray's book. He had just decided to sit there, staring around aimlessly. She raised her brow at him.

"You know, you don't have to quit reading just because I decided to come in and steal your food." She giggled as she decided to use the table as her leg rest. He just leaned back in his chair and motioned towards the book.

"Oh I know. It just ended up being not as interesting as I thought it would be." He smirked, running his hands up and down his pants as he relaxed.

She just nodded, understanding how he felt about things like that. She finished up the food in silence and looked around the room as well, like she was mimicking Ray's previous movements.

"So, why is Peter on a date with Dana? I mean I understand if he likes her, but it just seems so sudden." She asked and Ray shrugged.

"I don't exactly know. Pete's apparently been doing research on this Zuul character that you both heard about and he told us that he had gone to tell her about it. Now it's ended up as a date." He explained, thinking that that was basically what it was.

Linda just laughed, shaking her head, "wait, so Dana _has_ been curious about her ghost? My gosh, that woman is so hard to read."

Ray smiled, "You're saying it like that's uncommon. We haven't met anyone that hasn't believed in ghosts yet."

"Well then you met another side of Dana that even I didn't know about. I've only mentioned the ghost once since it happened and she got annoyed with me. Apparently she likes talking to Peter more then me about these things." She snorted and Ray leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.

"Don't take it too bad. She probably means well. And she probably only talks to Peter about it because, well, he's a professional!" he shrugged with a smirk and Linda's mouth dropped open.

"Dr. Raymond Stantz. Are you saying that I am _not_ a professional?" she teased.

Ray just shook his head, "well, not at Parapsychology." He smirked.

She narrowed her eyes, watching him carefully as she leaned on her palm.

"Says you. As far as you know I could be a professional at everything. And I'm secretly one upping you, right now." She said sarcastically and Ray laughed.

"That is theoretically impossible. But I must say, you are good at multiple things, that I don't doubt." He said, wagging his finger at her.

She grinned and looked down at the table, "Why thank you." She said quietly.

He looked at her oddly and smiled, "You're welcome."

Her eyes trailed up his legs and then up his body to his face, getting a good look at his brown-ish/hazel eyes. She blinked a few times before traveling down to his elbows where she saw the History book again.

"…So what were you reading about?" she asked, turning her head to get a better look at the name of the book. It just said Ancient History.

Lifting his elbows, he looked down at the book and picked it up carefully to open it. He searched the pages slowly, "I was just examining things about ancient kings and queens. Studying whether or not how you die effects whether or not you'll be able to haunt someone when you're in the afterlife." He muttered.

Linda nodded.

"I think it depends on the person. What if they're able to choose what they do in the afterlife?"

Ray squinted at her, "…who is the professional here?" he asked sarcastically and Linda laughed. "You are." She muttered.

"Exactly. So _I'm_ supposed to the ask those questions. But I won't do that until later, once Spengler comes back from checking the containment unit." He grinned, looking at her teasingly.

Linda stared at the page he had opened to. Page 356, King Tut of Egypt. She lifted up her hand and pointed down at Tut's name.

"You know, if I actually become an archeologist…I could be studying his tomb by this time next year." She said matter-of-factly.

Ray raised his brows, "Is that so?"

"Mmhm." She nodded. Ray grinned and looked down at the book longingly.

"Who knows what type of paranormal activity could be remaining down there. King Tut could still be lounging around all of his riches at this moment." He mumbled, staring at the pictures of all of the Gold and the pyramids. Linda watched him, her stomach feeling light at the thought of Ray finding ghosts in ancient tombs.

It was odd for her to feel like that about something so simple or stupid, but it made Linda happy to see that he was doing what he wanted to do. Finding something down in the tomb would make his life, literally, complete.

"Does that mean that…._IF_ I become an archeologist…you would like to go and search that place? Bring your PKE meter and everything? Egon might like to go too." She shrugged and Ray looked up at her, his face brightening and his teeth bearing in a full grin. He seemed so enthusiastic now.

"Really? Do you realize how much that would mean to our research? We could practically uncover things that scientists have only _dreamed_ of discovering! Coming in contact with something that fantastical would blow the socks off of some of the simplest of dare-devils! The answers we could get from that research—well what I'm trying to say is that, _that_ would be AMAZING!" he laughed, almost jumping up and down in his chair.

"I take that as a "YES"?" she asked, trying not to laugh as his eyes darted from her to the book.

He nodded violently, reaching forward and taking her hands and staring into her light blue eyes.

"Yes! It is absolutely, unquestionably a—" he began, but the look in her eyes stopped him.

She stared at him curiously, her eyes light and surprised, but they also had happiness too. She was excited by his excitement. And Ray was again noticing, like he did long before, that she had extremely blue eyes. Filled with knowledge and complete calmness and tranquility. And yet she was so feisty around Peter and the others.

Now she seemed serene again, like she always seemed when she looked at him.

She looked at him expectantly, like she was waiting for him to finish his sentence.

"—Yes." He finally finished, saying it quietly as he tried to keep his cheeks from flushing pink.

They heard footsteps but neither of them moved until Egon was standing at the top of the stairs, and had decided to say something.

"Ray." He said firmly.

"Yes….yes—Yes?" he said slowly before snapping out of it and looking back at Egon who was staring at the two of them.

"I need your help with one of the PKE meters, it's busted." He muttered, hooking his thumb over his shoulder. Ray only nodded and he stood.

"Of course. Er—thanks for talking with me Linda." He muttered, waving to her. She lifted her hand slowly and waved it at him too, smiling sweetly. Ray spun on his heels and followed Egon down the stairs quickly.

Once they were down in the basement, Ray grabbed Egon's shoulder.

"Egie! Do you know what she did?" he asked, pointing upstairs like they could see Linda through the ceiling.

Egon looked up at the ceiling, "…her work?" he asked.

"No! She said that if she becomes an archeologist, she'll take us to Egypt to inspect King Tut's tomb! Wouldn't that be GREAT?" he asked excitedly and Egon just watched as he flung his arms around during his explanation.

"Yes, I wondered why you were so flinchy. And why you were holding her hands."

"Well—Egie I was thanking her! I mean, that's a spectacular opportunity!" Ray pointed out, wagging his finger at Egon who just stared at it blankly.

They were quiet.

"Raymond I hope you're not mixing business with pleasure here."

Ray blinked at him.

"What?" he laughed.

"Linda is only funding us. Don't get too attached. I hate to say that and sound like I don't care, but you're getting way too personal with a working partner."

"But…you, me and Venkman are all friends…and we work together."

"There's a difference between loving a friend, and love in general."

"L—Love? What does that have to do with this? My love is for this! Our job!"

Egon just blinked at him and looked away, he reached for the broken PKE meter on the table and handed it to him.

"Fix it. And after that, we got another call about some ghosts across the county. I already called Winston to go with you. I have to stay here and work. And I doubt Peter would enjoy being called while on one of his dates." He muttered before leaving to do another test.


	13. INTERMISSION

**Oh.**

**Hey there.**

***awkward pause***

**I see that ya'll are waiting for an update.**

**And this update might be…disappointing…seeing as how it's just a document full of excuses.**

**You were probably expecting so much more.**

**And believe me!**

**That will come!  
I just need to get back into the swing of things.**

**I need to re-watch the Ghostbusters films to get that motivation.**

**And, where I left ya'll off, I was writing a chapter 13!**

**You know what happened next?**

**MY COMPUTER DIED.**

**AND I LOST EVERYTHING.**

**I had a whole….10 page document of writing for chapter 13.**

**A whole chapter of Egon and Linda talking…Egon explaining things to Linda so she actually understands what's going on with Dana.**

**And possibly expanding their friendship!**

**But you can understand the distress I was under when I found out that my computer wiped all of that out.**

**All of that hard work.**

**I began to cry!**

**SERIOUSLY.**

**I was heart broken.**

**And it doesn't help when my other file (35 pages worth, all in small type) of an original story I was writing, that I put so much damn effort into, was lost as well.**

**I had been working on that since…since I got this laptop in October of 2010!**

**So to get over all of that, I watched Sherlock Holmes with my dad…and that sparked a whole nother fire.**

**A RobertDowneyJr./SherlockHolmes/awesomeness obsession I'd been holding in.**

**THEN, halfway through typing THAT, I realized people were still subscribing to Ghostbusters!**

**I thought…holy cow, I'm neglecting my Ghostbustin' family!**

**I haven't posted anything!**

**But.**

**Luckily, I swallowed down the tears and pity I had from losing all of my files and I typed this up.**

**Just to let ya'll know that I'm still alive, and I haven't forgotten about the GB.**

**I'll get back to them sooner or later.**

**I mean I'm coming up on a 3-day weekend…I have a big chance of watching those movies again.**

**So we'll see.**

**Thanks for sticking by me.**

**All of you.**

**It's so wonderful.**

**I LOVE YOU ALL.**

**Love,**

**Mattie (aka MaddHatter12)**


	14. My Friend'sPossessed?

**La la la la la…la la la…hmmm hm hm…**  
**OH!**  
**I didn't see you there.**

**Do you know what this is?  
That's right, this is a crappy new chapter.  
A sad excuse for an update.  
Took a while, but hopefully it comes out well enough for you to all enjoy reading.**

**I'VE MISSED YOU!**

**(P.S. I've based some of this dialogue off of Dan's original script that I found online.)**

It was taking him forever. Linda leaned her elbows on the table and set her head in her palms, her eyes beginning to droop. For some reason, sitting in the chair, waiting for Ray, had made her extremely tired and she was positive that 10 minutes hadn't even passed. She sucked in her breath and sighed dramatically as she dropped her hands to the table and looked around the dirty room.

The sound of the front door opening and closing echoed throughout the firehouse and Linda shifted in her seat, not caring about the frantic footsteps she heard. Her mind was beginning to wander.

Thoughts of Peter and Dana on a date made her stomach drop a bit. It wasn't that she was jealous—she had no interest in Dr. Venkman whatsoever—but she didn't understand why Dana had said nothing to her about anything that was going on. She didn't even know that Peter and Dana were in contact in general. Ray had told her that Dana must've trusted him because he was professional but something didn't feel right.

Not about Peter and Dana, just something about the case in general.

She lifted one of her palms up to her face and rubbed her forehead slowly, trying to wipe away the fatigue. She heard one of the cabinet doors shut downstairs with a slam and a couple more footsteps, cloth scraping against skin as well.

"Ray? Ray!" a familiar voice called out. Linda turned in her chair and she looked back at the stairs, her eyebrow quirking.

"Winston?" Linda called.

There was a pause before she heard his footsteps coming her way before loud trudges were heard up the steps. His head appeared and then his shoulders and torso, his hand reaching up to grab the railing and rest. He gave her a weak smile and let his stature fall.

"Is Ray up here?" he asked and she shook her head.

"No…Dr. Spengler—Egon," she corrected herself, "called him downstairs a couple minutes ago. Something about a PKE meter I think?" she shrugged and he shut his eyes.

"Are you all right?" she asked worriedly, standing up and taking a step towards him. He lifted a hand up and nodded, "Yeah, just tired. Egon called me up saying that someone made an emergency call." He explained, looking over his shoulder back down the stairs, expecting to see Ray.

Linda bit her lip and nodded, "I see." she said, sounding a little disappointed.

She didn't _mean_ to sound disappointed. She just thought she was going to get to talk to Ray more about Egypt and ghosts. His enthusiasm was probably the only thing keeping her awake, or it would be once he would've gotten back upstairs to keep talking. Just mentioning even bringing him with her made him downright ecstatic. Linda felt like she barely said anything of importance and he was spazzing out. She thought it was cute.

"I'll just go check downstairs." Winston said tiredly, turning around slowly and pounding back down the stairs. She sat back down and rested her elbow on the table.

Another set of foot steps were coming up the other set of stairs and Linda held her breath, hoping it was only Egon. She at least wanted to say goodbye. But fate just wasn't having it.

"Winston, is that you?" Ray called out as Winston made it to the main floor. Linda jumped out of her chair and ran to the top of the stairs, grabbing the wall and the railing as support as she tried her best to rush down. She only made it halfway down when she spotted Ray and Winston rushing to the car with their suits on.

"Did Egon tell you where the house is?"

"Yeah. It's across the county. The guy says that some poltergeist has been playing at Fort Detmerring, and now it's actually attacked them! I can't wait to check it out, especially because they claim it's a FEMALE ghost!" Ray said, opening the driver side door and sticking one foot into the car, looking over the windshield to look at Winston who was doing the same on the passenger side.

Winston laughed and nodded, "This is gonna be interesting." He said, his eyes widening and his brows rising and his head cocking to the side. Linda smirked and let out a chuckle. She heard Winston climb into the car and then shut his door.

Ray was about ready to do the same when Winston pushed open the passenger side door and ran to his cabinet where he kept his gear. "Hold on, I forgot something." He said, reaching into the cabinet, pulling out his jacket. He reached his hand into the pocket and pulled out his wallet.

"Your wallet? You need your wallet?" Ray asked, raising his brows.

"Well…if we get fried by this poltergeist, they're gonna need to I.D. the body…." Winston said logically with a shrug as he walked back to his side of the car. Ray laughed and shook his head.

Linda pressed her lips together and played with her hands as she looked down at her feet. She wasn't gonna bother trying to say goodbye when he was talking to Winston, who was now laughing and talking with Ray as he got into the car again.

Ray was grinning as he looked up at the stairs and saw Linda, standing there pitifully. His smile slightly fell, but it was still somewhat plastered there as he examined her from head-to-toe, examining her figure in her flowy, powdery blue dress with her white sweater. His smile grew again as Winston put one foot in the car and stared at Ray puzzled. He followed Ray's line of sight and saw Linda.

"Hey!" Ray called and Linda looked up, her hair bouncing around her shoulders. She motioned with her head to move a chunk of hair out of her face as she looked up at him calmly.

Winston sustained his stare between the two as Ray continued; "We can continue talking about King Tut later. I promise." He called, not as loudly as before, but still with force.

A grin spread on Linda's face and she let out a giggle, looking down at her hands again, "I'd like that." She called. Ray continued to smile as a smirk grew on Winston's face as he stared between the two suspiciously.

"I would too." Ray said quietly, staring at her. Linda, for some reason, couldn't keep eye contact, as she turned pink. She kept looking from his deep hazel eyes to her hands and then to his eyes again.

His eyes seemed to glaze over as he just stared at her, but Winston lifted his wrist up and checked his watch. He used the same hand to then smack the windshield and get Ray's attention as Egon walked up the steps. "Ray, come on, we gotta go!" he reminded him.

Egon lifted his head up from his calculator and looked at Winston and Ray. Ray's head was frantically looking between Winston and the stairs and he just nodded, "Yeah I know." Egon took a few steps forward and looked up the stairs and saw Linda. He just let out an inaudible sigh and slightly shook his head.

The car doors shut and the car ominously turned on, the lights shining out into the building, casting shadows of Janine's desk and the couch and Egons form across the walls. The car honked at the two and Linda squinted and waved as Egon lifted up his hand to shield his eyes. The car backed out of the building and then drove off, the lights and sirens blaring.

Linda let out a tired sigh and walked down the stairs, holding onto the railing tightly.

_I might as well go home now. My parents are probably asleep._ She thought, running her free hand through her hair, ignoring the awkward moment before Ray and Winston left.

Egon took another step forward and caught Linda by surprise, causing her to jump and place a hand over her heart. She smiled and shook her head, saying, "Egon! My goodness, I didn't see you there!" she laughed. He just smiled.

"Yes. You can go home now. I'm almost done with my tests and your services are no longer needed." He said monotonously. She just nodded and walked around him to walk into Peter's office and grab her coat.

"Of course. Good luck with your tests." She called, trying to sound cheery. He stayed silent and spun on his heels to walk back downstairs. Linda ignored his lack of reply and gathered up her things, slinging her coat over her arm and pulling her bag up over her shoulder. She drug herself out of Peter's office and towards the front door, walking right through the spot where the car was sitting before.

She sucked in a breath and yawned tiredly when a loud crash erupted from down the stairs. She clamped her mouth shut and stopped walking, practically freezing in the middle of the garage area. She swallowed down a wad of spit and slowly turned around to stare at the staircase that lead down to the containment center.

"…Dr. Spengler?" she called.

No answer.

"Egon?" she called again, taking a step forward. She heard a few more quiet bangs and then more silence.

She took another step forward before dropping her things and rushing to the top of the stairs. "Egon?" she called down them. A couple more quiet bangs and silence. She grabbed the railing and dashed down the stairs.

When she got towards the bottom, she saw a pair of shelves had fallen over, their broken contents were broken further and Egon lay, sprawled, beneath the wreckage. Linda gasped, securing her hand over her mouth as she examined it all.

"Are you all right?" she cried, worriedly, just staring and not moving.

"Somewhat…but I would appreciate some help." He muttered, trying to push himself up. A few pieces of equipment tumbled to the ground or moved out of the way. Linda nodded and jumped to the floor and started to pull up the black, wire shelves that had taken him out. She did her best to push it up against the wall and keep it stable as he sat up and swiped away a few pieces of already broken equipment.

"What…what were you doing?" Linda laughed as he stood up and wiped off his sleeves. He looked down at her and then back to his sleeves.

"I was only looking for something when it collapsed on me. Hopefully, the poltergeist will cost enough for us to have money for some new shelves and some tools for a few new goggles." He grumbled.

She shrugged, "I told Peter to set up specific prices for specific jobs, but he still thinks you should base it off of the clients income." She muttered, taking her hand away from the wire wrack, being cautious, so as not to let it fall over again.

"It's a smart idea. And it'll have to do. Hopefully the place has a good income. We'll just have to do without the shelves for now."

Linda looked up at the shelves and back at Egon, "You know, I could buy you guys new shelves. If you really need them. It just looks like you guys have been putting broken stuff on an already broken piece of junk." She suggested, poking the foot of the shelves with her toe lightly.

This time he shrugged, looking at the shelves, "They're not too important…like you said, we only put broken pieces of machinery on it to fix for later. Turns out they can't be fixed and we need to buy everything new." He muttered.

Linda nodded and looked down at her feet at a broken pair of goggles. She bent over and picked them up.

"Like a new pair of these?" she asked, turning them over a couple of times. He nodded and pointed to them, "those are the goggles we need the tools for. Hence the money." He sighed.

She turned them over once again and crinkled her nose at the sight of the gaudy things. She remembered Ray wearing them when they caught the ghost at her hotel. She looked up at Egon and handed him the glasses.

"What do they do?" she asked, trying to make conversation and genuinely wanting to know.

"The paragoggles?" he asked and only received a hesitant nod. "They're used to see invisible entities that one normally can't see with the naked eye. They also help us visually track PKE waves. Unfortunately, Venkman dropped this last pair, so Ray had to go without them on this job." Egon explained, tossing the goggles onto the table next to them.

Linda nodded again. "And what does a PKE meter do?"

Egon paused, staring off into the distance as if he didn't want to be asked these questions, "PKE stands for Psycho Kinetic Energy. So that's exactly what they measure." He said simply.

She pressed her lips together and nodded, only slightly satisfied with her answer. Silence overcame them and Egon looked around awkwardly before slowly bending over and picking up a bunch of bits and pieces of gear. He gently set it all back onto the weary shelves and then walked over to the containment center, which Linda had been staring at.

Her mind had begun to float back to Dana and Peter and their date. _I wonder how that's going…_ she thought, feeling melancholy now. She heard Egon shuffling around at the desk, so she looked in his general direction.

"What do you think Peter and Dana are doing now? Isn't Peter supposed to be back soon?" she asked and Egon froze, not expecting to be spoken too. He stood up straight and shrugged, looking at his watch.

"It's about…midnight…so I don't really want to be thinking about what they're doing." He muttered, trying not to choke on his words at the thought of Peter doing anything with anyone. Linda turned pink and coughed lightly, brushing a chunk of hair behind her ear.

"Oh…of course…stupid question." She muttered.

"They could also be talking about her Zuul problem." He suggested immediately after she looked away, trying not to leave things awkward.

_Zuul._ She remembered and she turned back to look at him, the pink leaving her cheeks.

"Zuul? That's the name we heard come out of the refrigerator." She remembered and he nodded.

"That's right. You were there too." He said, monotonously remembering that she was with Dana when it all happened.

"Yeah…what did you learn about Zuul?" she asked, her intrigue sounding genuine. She clasped her hands together and began to play with them as she waited for his answer, staring at him excitedly. He again looked off into the distance, like he was thinking. She knew he didn't need to think though.

"Well, as you could've guessed, she's nothing of this earth." He nodded and she tried her best not to role her eyes. She knew that the moment she saw it in Dana's fridge. But another word inspired her interest, making her thoroughly confused.

"Wait—you said "she". How do you know it's a "she"?" she asked, glaring at him suspiciously.

He shrugged, "It was somewhat of a guess. She's a demigod that's said to possess only women. That's when it _does_ possess someone. She seems to have preferences." He explained and she hesitantly nodded, trying to understand his estimations. "And also because it has a partner." He added and she rubbed her temple.

"A partner?" she questioned. "Like…a partner in a crime?" she joked and he just nodded.

"Exactly. Vinz Clortho. Otherwise known as the Keymaster." He confirmed and she tightly closed her mouth, deciding not to make anymore jokes.

"If he…or she…is the _Keymaster_…doesn't that mean they need a door? Or an entrance to something? No point in having a key if it doesn't go to anything." she asked, crossing her arms and rubbing her elbows. Again he nodded and sat down at the desk, crossing his legs tiredly.

"That's what Zuul is for. She's known as the Gatekeeper. The two need each other to summon their leader. Gozer."

"Was that name in that book of yours too?" she asked, but he shook his head.

"No. Surprisingly, Venkman discovered it. He went to tell Dana a few days ago and now they're on a date to discuss it all. I don't know what the gate is to, though. Possibly to Gozer and it's power."

"Wonderful. So Dana knew all of this before me." Linda laughed and Egon quirked a brow.

"Well, of course. Her fridge, her demigod, her problem." He said as casually as possible. She closed her eyes and chuckled. "Don't worry about not knowing it. For some people, it's hard to understand these things." He shrugged.

His words caused her to shake her head wildly, looking at him concernedly. "No, no! It's not that I don't understand it. I do now, but—I was just complaining. Sorry." She apologized. He just shook his head and raised his hand to dismiss her comment. He rocked back in forth in his chair as she sat down on the edge of the desk and looked at the containment center.

"So…if you manage to capture these… "GODS"… do you plan on keeping them in there?" she asked, slumping her shoulders and pointing at the center. He followed her finger and shrugged.

"Venkman and Ray would expect me too."

"And Winston?"

"He knows more about my tests than the others, so he knows what I think. And he agrees. The containment center isn't stable enough to handle beings as powerful as Zuul, Vinz, and Gozer. If they were any other ghosts, we could possible make an exception…but these three were worshiped-"

"I figured…I mean they're Gods. Gods are generally worshipped…sorry." She apologized again, seeing his blank stare as she interrupted him. She looked away awkwardly as he sucked in a breath to continue rambling on.

"—so their power has been able to build up. A history book that Peter left behind said that they were worshiped by the Sumerian's and the…the Mesopotamians." He finished and her eyes widened. She pointed at him and snapped her fingers.

"I remember that stuff from class in college! I might have to go to a bunch of dig sites to find some of their artifacts…I don't know why though, they lived in the time before Christ. So I don't know how all of that could be preserved in the ground." She shrugged, thinking about taking Ray to dig sites to look for Sumerian artifacts.

Egon smirked and nodded, "Gozer was worshipped around the time of 6000 B.C. by it's own cult. Who knows…the cult could've turned into a religion, or just stayed as a cult. It could still be alive today. I should probably look into that actually…" He suggested and she sucked in a nervous breath.

"I hope not. If he was worshipped that long ago—" she began, but Egon interrupted her.

"It."

"—what?"

"Gozer is an "IT", not a he. It has no real gender or form. It becomes what it wants to become." He corrected and she rubbed her hands together, awkwardly.

"Oh…my mistake." She chuckled.

There was a random spurt of silence and they both stared off into the distance, somewhat blacking out. Linda was thinking about a demigod inside Dana's fridge, and how weird it was to think about. An 8000 year old demigod resided in her best friends fridge. _I wonder how unsettling that is for her. Not believing in ghosts and all._ She thought, thinking about Dana just shaking her head and turning her nose up frustratingly.

"I hope Dana's starting to finally realize that ghosts are real." She mumbled to herself.

"She'll have to now. She has one living in her apartment." Egon replied monotonously, staring at the floor. Her head bobbed around on her neck and she cocked her head in his general direction.

"Thank you for updating me." She muttered, pursing her lips. He shrugged and examined his fingers.

"You're welcome." He sighed before they heard a slam from upstairs. Feet shuffled across the floor above them and their eyes darted to the ceiling. They heard the footsteps stop around the point where Janine's desk should be, and then it was just a few scrapes across the floor until the chair creaked.

Linda peeked at Egon and smirked, remembering that Janine liked him.

"You're darling is here." She muttered and he pressed his lips into a thin line, narrowing his eyes at her when Janine began to call out his name.

"EGON! EGON I'M HERE EARLY! YOU AWAKE?" her nasally voice echoed. Linda tried not to cringe, but she needed to, and Egon followed suit. There was no need for Janine to shout. The stairs were somewhat close to where she was, not too far behind her.

"You better get up there, or she'll call for you again." She muttered as Egon stood up and checked his watch. From what Linda could see, it was only one o'clock now. She rolled her eyes. _One in the morning certainly is early._ She thought, remembering Janine's statement before.

Egon stretched and nodded. He walked over to the stairs and grabbed the railing. His foot was barely on the first step when he froze and looked over his shoulder to hesitantly ask, "Earlier…were you serious about bringing Ray and I with you to Egypt?"

She sat up straight and tucked a chunk of hair behind her ear as she began to nod, a reminiscent smile forming on her face, "Yeah of course. If you both want to go. And if my paper passes with an "Outstanding"." She said, using air quotes. He looked down at the floor and just nodded for a moment.

"All right." He simply stated before walking back up the steps.

Linda jumped off of the edge of the desk and landed right in front of the stairs. She yawned and walked up them doubtfully, not knowing whether she was going to pass out and fall down them, or whether she was going to actually make it up and then collapse to the floor at Egon and Janine's feet. She cleared her throat and pulled herself up to the top. Egon was standing there, staring down at a pad of paper as Janine rushed through the garage area, calling out, "I'll get it."

She quirked a brow and walked up next to Egon to watch Janine step over all of her stuff and walk up to the front door, open it and step out. Egon didn't even look up from his paper. The door swung open again with a creak and Linda flinched. Janine stepped inside and called for Egon, who reluctantly looked up from his paper.

"The police want to see you." She said, just as monotonous as he as she walked back through the building. Linda reached up and grabbed Egon's sleeve. He flinched and looked down at her, her eyes flickering up to him.

"If Walter Peck is with them, tell him he can't do anything unless Peter's here…." She said quickly and quietly. Egon's eyebrows raised exponentially and he looked determinedly at the door.

He quickly speed walked over to the door and pushed through it until he was fully outside and the door was fully closed. Linda let out a breath she was holding when he came back immediately followed by the police. This time he was holding a PKE meter he must've had at his belt, because Linda certainly hadn't seen it before. But two cops were following him, dragging behind a small, wild looking man. No Walter Peck in sight.

Linda took one step forward and immediately recognized Louis Tully. Her hand shot up to her mouth and she gasped.

"Where should we put him?" a cop asked Egon. He looked back at the cops and then up at the stairs.

"You can take him upstairs, please." He said politely and the police officers nodded. They drug Louis up the stairs and Egon followed right behind them, pulling out his pad of paper yet again and also his pen. Janine sat back down at her desk, not before giving Linda a look as she rushed after the four men.

The police had set him down on a comfy looking chair surrounded by pieces of equipment that Linda had failed to notice. Computer screens and flashing meters surrounded him and Egon stood over Louis, making him look even smaller. Egon nodded towards the police and thanked them. They each nodded and tipped their hats to Linda who smiled weakly and nodded. She stepped around the couch and looked down at Louis.

Egon noticed her confused facial expression and his brows furrowed.

"You seem concerned." He muttered.

She looked up at him suddenly and then nodded, "Yes, well, this is Louis Tully…Dana's neighbor—Louis? Louis are you all right?" she asked, sitting down on the couch and reaching out to touch his knee and get his attention.

He only flinched and then leaned down to sniff her hand. She quickly yelped and pulled her hand away when he decided to lick it. Egon flinched at her sudden reaction as Louis bared his teeth pitifully, "Are you the Gatekeeper?" he asked as Janine appeared at the top of the stairs. Linda's brows furrowed and Janine walked around the couch to sit with her. Egon grabbed a large metal hat that looked like a colander that had a bunch of jewels and lights attached to it. He strapped him in and then applied a bunch of wires to him. Linda pressed her lips together and examined Louis worriedly as Egon turned on one of the screens behind Louis.

His hand reached out and turned on the hat Louis was wearing and immediately a thermal image of a demon dog's head appeared on the screen, following each of Louis' movements. Linda's eyes widened and Egon shook his head at the sight. He sighed and turned to Louis.

"What did you say your name was?" he asked concernedly.

Louis' head snapped up. "Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer." He said, sounding worn out and a little saddened.

Janine picked up his wallet from the coffee table and examined it as Egon turned to Linda, stating, "And you said his name was Louis Tully. You obviously know him."

"Yeah. Like I said, he's Dana's neighbor. Central Park West." She chuckled, clarifying his address. Janine rubbed her hands together and leaned forward.

"Would you like some coffee Mr. Tully?" she offered and Louis looked up to Egon.

"Do I?" he asked and Egon looked down at him sternly, "Yes, have some."

"Yes, have some." Louis repeated, nodding his head and looking at Janine happily. Janine looked from Linda to Egon awkwardly and then pushed herself off the couch to make coffee on the other side of the room. Linda just stared at the monitor, her face scrunching up in confusion.

"Vinz…you said before that you were waiting for a sign…." Egon began, shoving something into his pocket and walking around to sit on the coffee table in front of Louis. Linda's face scrunched up further and figured that he was running around screaming about it. "What sign are you waiting for?" Egon asked, leaning on his knees.

Louis wasted no time to answer, "Gozer the Traveler! He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Voldranii, the Traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation, the last of the Meccetric supplements, they chose a new form for him. That of a giant SLOAR! Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the sloar on that day I can tell you." He rambled as Egon looked over Linda's shoulder to Janine, who looked completely disturbed, unable to fill up the coffee cup. He looked to Linda who's eyes were darting around wildly before he slowly turned back to stare at "Vinz" with narrowed eyes.

When he finished Linda sucked in a breath and let it out through her nose, staring at him somewhat frightened. "Egon." Janine said sweetly, motioning for him to come over. He stood up and walked over to where she was and stared down at her as she began to whisper.

"Egon, there's something very strange about that man." She muttered, looking to Louis, placing her arms on Egon's chest. "I'm usually very psychic about this and I have this terrible feeling that something awful is going to happen to you." She continued, pausing for effect as Egon stared down at her awkwardly.

"I'm afraid you're gonna die." She finished, just as she wrapped her arms around him and placed her ear to his chest. His hands lifted up awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Linda pressed her lips together and tried not to smile at the awkward pair.

She couldn't help but practically jump out of her seat when the phone rang right next to her. Before the sound even went off, Egon was out of Janine's grip and right next to thing, picking it up and answering. "Hello?" he answered coolly.

There was a pause.

"What is it?"

Another pause.

"Some…I just met the Keymaster…he's with me now." Egon said reluctantly, looking back at Louis who was sniffing a jar.

Pause.

"I think that would be catastrophically bad."

Linda took in air sharply during the pause.

"I'll try…. Bye Venkman." He said before putting the phone back down on the receiver.

Linda stood up after hearing Peter's name, knowing something was immediately wrong. She looked back at Louis. She walked around the couch and grabbed his sleeve.

"Egon, that was Peter?" she asked, and he cleared his throat and nodded.

"He says he's with Dana—"

"You mean the Gatekeeper." She guessed, thought, didn't want to hear him say yes.

He pressed his lips together and nodded sullenly. She paused and ran her hands through her hair.

"…my friends possessed?" she asked quietly, keeping calm. She shut her eyes tightly and breathed deeply, thinking about possessions that she had seen in movies and trying _not _to picture that happening to Dana.

"Unfortunately…we need to keep Louis with us at all times. We can't let him leave, or he'll go and find Dana. We don't want to see those consequences." He muttered and Janine crossed her arms worriedly as they all turned to look back at Louis. Linda just nodded.

"Well…let's get him comfortable then." She sighed.


	15. I Never Trusted My Parents

**Another chapter!**  
**Yes. It's true.**  
**I've been watching Ghostbusters 2 over and over again.**

**Only because it has a great soundtrack.**

**My guilty pleasure, I must admit.**

**SO, I've been trying to draw out the amount of chapters, only because mine only has like…. fourteen, and yet other, more popular stories, have thirty chapters.**

**I feel like I'm doing something wrong.**

**But you never know, in this case, fewer really could be better!**

**We'll wait and see.**

**AND.  
SPOILER (not really).**

**We're close to the stereotypical "damsel in distress" moments for Linda.**

**Yippie!**

"So…when exactly is Peter supposed to get back?" Linda asked tiredly, leaning up against the stair railings. She placed her hands in her lap and entwined her fingers lazily, trying not to let her head fall forward and smack her collarbone.

Egon only peered at her for a moment, looking up from the papers he was shuffling on the desk. Louis was sticking his head right in Egon's vision so he could sniff everything he touched, or just see everything more closely. Lightly, Egon pushed him away and walked across the room to check something else, Louis trailing right behind him.

"I don't exactly know. He should've been back a while ago, actually." He shrugged, speaking matter-of-factly. She rolled her eyes and held back a groan of disappointment.

_Where the hell is he?_ She thought impatiently.

"I'm surprised Ray and Winston aren't back either." He suddenly added, lifting up his wrist to check his watch and the time. He "hmphed" and walked over to the shelves, carefully picking up things from it, searching through what he thought were still in one piece.

Linda looked up at him and pressed her lips together.

_That's right…Ray and Winston are on call… _She remembered, looking at the floor.

"Where did they go again?"

"Fort Detmerring. Somewhere across the county, I don't remember the address." He said absent-mindedly, looking down at a pair of goggles that he was examining. Trying to find some kind of activity that could prove its work status.

Linda nodded again and noticed a bunch of little boxes with smaller devices in them that had been placed on the shelves. She was so tired; she didn't remember him putting anything there.

She pushed herself off of the railing and took one step to her right so she could sigh and sit down on the steps. She leaned her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her palms, her lips pouting. Her eyes darted around the room, threatening to close. She could feel Egon just looking at her every once in a while as Louis sniffed his shoulder and all of the things in his hands.

"You know, you _can_ go to sleep. As long as one of us keeps an eye on him, he won't be leaving anytime soon." He said, motioning to Louis who craned his neck to smell the back of Egon's. Egon stepped away and Louis almost tumbled to the floor.

She chuckled but shook her head, "Nah, I can stay awake. Besides, if I go to sleep, I may not wake up. I'm _that _tired."

"All the more reason for you to sleep?" he said after a pause, looking around awkwardly.

"Yeah I know…but I just want to keep an eye on Louis myself. How are you feeling _Vinz_?" she asked, leaning to look around Egon at Louis who had walked over to poke at a lamp. He twitched and turned to them.

"Wait for the sign. The sign is coming." He grinned stupidly and Linda raised her brows, pressing her lips together.

"All righty then. I think I might take up that sleeping offer." She said, deciding watching over Louis was actually a lost cause, seeing as how he seemed too stupid to leave by himself.

Egon smirked and turned back to the shelves, "Come here Vinz." He said, motioning with his head to Louis to walk over to him again.

Linda pulled herself up, with help from the railing and turned to drag her stone-heavy feet up the stairs. She could hear scuffling just above them but thought nothing of it until she could hear Janine speaking frantically.

"Oohhh no! I've seen those cop shows, I know you can't come in here without a warrant or a write or something!" she said angrily.

Linda could hear the shuffling of paper and she paused for a moment on the steps, just to listen. A man began to speak.

"Cease and desist all commerce order, seizure of premises and chattels, ban on the use of public utilities for non-licensed waste handlers and a Federal Entry and Inspection Order." The man listed off quickly, speaking with a determined tone. Linda's eyes widened at the sound of the list of warrants and she pretended like her legs were no longer weighing her down but helping her fly up the stairs.

Her feet had barely gotten to the top when Walter Peck himself was standing in front of her, followed by a police officer and some maintenance worker, Janine at the back trying to speak to them. Linda looked up at him and gasped, thinking he had suddenly appeared from thin air.

His eyes narrowed and his mouth bared a grin as he looked her up and down, especially around her collarbone.

For some reason, she felt like shaking. Somewhat because she had just run up the stairs and she was extremely tired already, and somewhat because Peck gave her the creeps. She had thought about why long before when she first met him, but now he actually scared her. He had actually gone and gotten a warrant to shut them down. Peter had pissed him off that much.

"Why, hello there _Linda_." He emphasized her name quietly. A chill ran down her spine and she did her best not to show it.

"Hello, Mr. Peck." She muttered.

He lifted his hand and waved it slightly, gesturing her away. "Step aside."

She glared at him, forcing herself to be somewhat brave, even with an officer standing behind him. She wanted to be menacing. This was her job, she wasn't going to allow him to stomp all over it.

"And why should I do that?" she hissed.

His grin widened and he set his hand on her shoulder.

"Because I have important business to take care of. My clients have informed me that noxious gasses and even adultery are present in this work environment. And that's harmful to _my_ work environment." He said menacingly.

Her eyes widened at his touch and she clenched her teeth, trying to read through what he said.

"Clients?"

"Yes. You may know them."

"I doubt it. I don't know anyone that would make false claims just to shut a business down. Like, adultery? Really?"

His brows lifted and he smirked.

"That's surprising. Since my clients are the Sedgewicks. Sound familiar?" he asked, looking as though he wanted to laugh at her expression. She couldn't help but let her jaw drop.

The _Sedgewicks_? Her own _parents_ had called Walter Peck? They hated her working with the Ghostbusters _that_ much that they were willing to pay boat loads of cash to pay some asshole to shut them down?

Peck's expression softened.

"Aw. Don't look so devastated. The entire city knew that this moment was inevitable. Your parent's just decided to take action! Besides...you said you liked things dangerous. Now let's go." He growled through gritted teeth finally, squeezing her shoulder and forcing her to turn around. She did so mechanically and allowed him to push her by the small of her back, making her feel even more uncomfortable.

The officer, the maintenance man and Janine followed them, all of them bustling down the stairs. Janine started to call out for Egon, warning them, "Egon! I _tried_ to stop them. He says they have a warrant!" she said desperately as they got down to the main floor and Egon had backed away from the stairs, blocking Louis.

Once Linda's feet hit the floor, Peck pushed her forward so she fell into Egon's arms. She did her best to keep her footing, only stumbling against him, allowing him to just grab her left shoulder and right elbow to keep her steady. Egon looked up at Peck, a look of both surprise and utter confusion written all over his face; Linda looked absolutely terrified and devastated.

_What would I tell Egon? Or Winston—this is his favorite job! Or Peter! Peter would _HATE_ me—oh no, Ray! He would be heartbroken! _She thought to herself, thinking about how the others would take the news. She would have to tell them. They were her parents, and they did call up the man who put there business through a small hell.

_But why would they do that? It's not like they love me…that didn't sound as depressing when I thought of it earlier…_ she whined in her head.

Egon started to pull her backwards, towards the containment center as Peck began to advance on them. She looked up at him, looking at him like he was the abominable snowman, coming to kill them.

"Excuse me, this is private property." Egon said calmly, Janine running up to their side as Louis bared his teeth at the group of men opposite of them.

"Shut this off. Shut these all off." Peck said nonchalantly, examining the room and pointing at all of the crucial machinery.

Egon's mouth began to open and close absent-mindedly before he finally lifted his hand to emphasize his words as he spoke, "I'm warning you, shutting off these machines would be extremely hazardous."

Louis stuck his nose into the middle of the group and began to mimic Egon's hands movements, pointing his own pointer finger and moving slowly, up and down.

Peck lifted his own pointer finger, "Oh I'll tell you what's hazardous. You're facing federal prosecution for at least half a dozen Environmental violations. Now either _you_ shut off these beams, or we shut them off for you." He said, speaking quickly and acting like he was trying to keep his temper.

He was doing quite well at ignoring Louis as Louis looked at his finger and began to point at him with his wavering hand.

Janine ran behind Egon and Egon pushed both she and Louis further behind him as they backed up against the leaver that shuts off the grid. Linda just held onto his coat for dear life as she glared at Peck, knowing that was all she could really do.

"_Try_ to understand, this is a high voltage laser containment system. Simply turning it off would be like dropping a bomb on the city." Egon said persistently, glowering at Peck, trying to emphasize the danger.

Linda's eyes widened and she looked up at Egon.

_Like dropping a BOMB?_

She let go of Egon's coat and stepped forward, determined to say something, "C—C'mon Peck—you heard him! You can't shut it off—you know the consequences!" she said desperately.

He lifted his finger and pushed it into her face, Louis deciding to mimic him again, "You're speaking out of line!" he growled angrily. She gasped and stepped backwards so she could grab Egon's coat. Instead he pushed her behind him, squishing her between the leaver and his back. She began to hear footsteps coming from the stairs, hoping to God it wasn't police back-up.

"Now don't patronize me," Peck began, just as the footsteps Linda heard drew closer. Peter's body appeared at the bottom of the stairs, staring somewhat confused at the scene. "I'm not grotesquely stupid, like the people you bill!" he said threateningly.

Peter reached out and touched the officer's shoulder, "At ease officer." He assured and Linda bit her lip.

"I'm Peter Venkman, I think there's been a slight misunderstanding. And I want to cooperate in any way that I can." He said professionally, sounding completely sincere, seeing the state of blank panic Egon seemed to be in, squishing three people against a wall behind him.

Linda peeked over Egon's arm, next to Janine as Peck turned and pointed at him, "Forget it Venkman! You had your chance to cooperate, but you thought it'd be more fun to insult me." He said, sounding prepared to become angry and then lose his cool as he advanced to Peter.

"Well now it is my turn wise-ass." He said with pride. Egon lowered his arms and Linda stepped out from behind him to stand next to Janine. Janine linked her arm with Linda's not bothering to look at her, not caring that she wasn't Egon.

"He wants to shut down the protection grid, Peter." Egon said in an exasperated tone.

Peter looked to Peck and poked him in the chest, "You shut that thing down and we are not going to be held responsible—"

"On the contrary—"

"For whatever goes on—"

"You will be held fully responsible—"

"No we will _not_ be held responsible—"

They growled, interrupting one another as Peter's temper began to rise.

"SHUT IT OFF!" Peck finally barked, turning away from Peter.

He walked over to the red unit where the small, innocent maintenance man stood, watching it all. He just stared at Peck, looking just as scared and nervous as Linda did before.

"DON'T shut it off!" Peter pointed, "I'm warning you."

The maintenance man looked between the two men and pointed at the unit.

"Um…I've never seen anything like this before. I don't know-"

"Well I'm not interested in your opinion, just shut it off." Peck demanded quietly, staring at the man fiercely.

Linda shut her eyes and shook her head, "Don't shut it off, don't shut it off, don't shut it off." She whispered to herself.

The maintenance man rolled his eyes and turned to walk around the desk when Peter jumped in front of him, the officer following right behind.

"My friend, _don't_ be a jerk." He said in his sarcastic-sincere manner that always confused Linda. But she knew he was being serious in some way.

The officer wrapped his arm around Peter's shoulder and pushed him away, "Step aside!" he ordered, causing Linda to cringe and open her eyes to see Peck step forward.

"If he does that again, you can shoot him!" he said matter-of-factly. Linda gasped and was a given a few glances, including from Peter who gave her a stare that read for her to keep quiet.

"You do your job pencil neck, don't tell me how to do mine!" the officer fired back.

"Thank you officer!" Peter said exasperatedly.

"SHUT IT OFF!" Peck ordered again. Linda flinched and she grabbed Egon's arm, Janine jumping to his other side to grab that arm as the maintenance man looked between the arguing men and shrugged.

He walked around the table, side-stepping Egon, Linda, Janine and the crazed Louis. The officer stepped back as Egon approached Peter, lifting his hands up to mime an explosion, directed towards Peter and the officer. Linda watched his hands and she turned to Peter, his eyes widening and then looking towards the stairs. Not before catching Linda's gaze.

She looked as though she was about to cry. She didn't want anything to explode, especially not this place. She thought about her parents again, and how they had brought all of this upon them. They had called Peck and they had made the claims and they had just ruined it all. She wanted to tell Peter and Egon right at that moment.

Peter started slowly, inching towards the stairs. Janine's grip had tightened on Egon and his own body tensed. Peter sucked in a breath and held out his hand, poking Linda's arm, motioning for her to take his hand. She looked back at Egon and then at Louis, who was just baring his teeth at the unsuspecting maintenance man.

Louis had chosen to stay by the leaver and just push his face into the business.

The maintenance man only gave him a quick glance before wrapping his fingers around the leaver and hesitantly pulling it down. Peter snatched up Linda's wrist in his grip.

The lights dropped.

A red light began to flash.

A loud pulsing noise erupted from speakers surrounding the unit.

Smoke erupted from a few cracks in the walls and everyone began to flinch and feel the ground shake.

The maintenance man could only look at the unit and shut his eyes, "Oh…shit." He moaned.

Louis looked like he was a kid in a candy shop, hyper, excited, amazed.

Peter was first up the stairs, dragging Linda by the wrist as she stared down at the smoke and lights and sounds.

The cop was behind them, followed by Egon and Janine, followed by the maintenance man, followed by Peck and followed by Louis.

Lights were popping out between the lining of the cinder block bricks in the walls.

Bricks themselves were popping right out from their places.

Upstairs, the smoke was beginning to travel and gather up there, the increasing amount of light filling up the dark void upstairs. Peter drug her around the corner, pulling her to make her move faster as he didn't dare look back.

"_CLEAR THE BUILDING!_" Linda heard Egon shout over all the commotion as he himself rounded the same corner with Janine.

Peter pushed the door open and they were out in the bright streets of New York, Linda beginning to pant and almost hyperventilate. All of them basically pushed out at the same time, right as the ground erupted and everything inside the building shattered. The light was now outside of the building, expanding further into the air until it was just the eye of the storm, shooting like a beam into the sky. A bright pinkish purple.

She and Peter almost doubled over onto the concrete but luckily they were able to keep their footing, almost smashing their heads into the side of the Police car that was parked outside the building. Louis was the last to stumble out, bumping into Linda while he twirled around to look at the building and all of the debris and smoke that was swirling around in the air.

"This is the sign!" he kept repeating, stumbling around all the people that had gathered.

Janine could just scoff and stare up at the sky, blocking the wind from her eyes as she replied, "It's a sign all right! "GOIN' OUTTA BUSINESS"."

Everyone that was inside could feel their knees wobbling after the explosion, but Linda's were the only ones that almost gave out. Peter immediately did his best to hold her up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on there!" he gasped as she almost collapsed to her knees, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her up to her feet.

"You okay? You doin' okay? Don't worry—it was just a large, deadly explosion!" he said reassuringly. Sarcastic-sincere reassuringly.

Egon ran over to the two, covering his head from bits of roof debris that were deciding to allow gravity to pull them back down to earth. He grabbed Linda's shoulder since she was the closest and bumped into the two frantically.

"Are you guys all right?" he called.

"We're fine-" Peter began but Linda immediately shook her head and interrupted him, looking at him frantically.

"No! No we're _NOT_ all right—_I'M_ not all right!" she said looking around at all the police cars and officers and passer-bys that were gathering to stare at the destruction. Peter shut his eyes tight from the light and opened them again, Egon staring at her oddly as she rubbed her forehead.

"Why—what happened?" Egon called out.

Distressed, she looked over her shoulder at Peck who was gathering a few officers together.

"Peck—he—my parents—my parents called him! _My _parents called Peck and told them all of those—_HORRIBLE_ things about you guys and—it's because they don't like me working for you!" she said finally feeling the stress turn into tears as Egon tried to keep her steady.

A fire hydrant down the street exploded and water flew into the air, and people began to scream all across town, the echoes landing right into their ears, furthering the realization that the city _will_ find them accountable. Peter noticed the police as well and let out a groan.

"You're _parents_?" Egon asked sounding shocked.

"Yes! My—my angry, determined—DENSE—parents! I don't even think they know that—that we called you to catch that ghost! Egon—Peter—I am _SO _sorry—so, so sorry!" Linda cried squeezing Peter's shoulder.

"Hey—little lady, it isn't your fault! Now come on we gotta go and find Ray and Winston!" Peter said assuredly, reaching out to tug at Egon's arm. Linda only let go of Peter's shoulder for a second, and then he and Egon were gone immediately, leaving her by the police car.

She looked around awkwardly, backing up a step or two to allow the group of officers to run past her and search for Peter and Egon, Peck failing to notice Linda right next to them.

Louis on the other hand was pushing through the crowd, causing a lot of shouts and annoyed glares, catching Linda's attention.

_Oh shit._ Linda thought, noticing Louis stumbling down the street staring up at the sky and all of the buildings. With a quick glance behind her at Peter and Egon, she took off at a sprint after Louis. She could hear the Ecto-1 driving up with it's sirens on, knowing that Ray would be stepping out any moment to stare at his baby in utter depression.

"Louis! LOUIS!" she screamed desperately, chasing after him, knowing that she had to get him back. He was looking for Dana and she didn't want that going completely down the drain. No one cared that she was chasing him, and they didn't care that she looked like she had come out of a war zone or that he looked like a wigged-out zombie.

Back in the commotion Ray and Winston jumped out of the Ecto-1 and ran to Peter and Egon.

"What happened?" Winston asked, Ray looking absolutely devastated.

"They shut off the protection grid." Egon said, his tone full of pure annoyance and disappointment.

Ray shut his eyes and rolled his head around on his neck, "Oh no." Winston looked between the three men as they all looked totally spent and useless. "That's bad isn't it." He asked. Ray only nodded.

"Yeah it is."

Egon's eyes widened, "Where's the Keymaster? And Linda?"

Peter looked around worriedly, "Oh, SHIT!" he growled.

"Whose the Keymaster? And Linda's _gone_? Why was she still here?" Ray gaped, looking at them confused. Egon spun around and led the men back towards the building until Peck ran up and smashed into them.

"HOLD IT!" he screamed, pointing at them, a group of police right behind him, including a random, older couple dressed in fancy attire.

"Captain, I want these men _arrested_! These men have been acting in criminal violation of the Environmental Protection Act—and this explosion is a direct result of it!" Peck demanded, and the older couple nodded approvingly.

"YOUR MOTHER!" Egon shrieked, attacking Peck angrily. The couple gasped and stepped around them as Peter and Winston did their best to pry Egon away from him, the police pulling at Peck. The couple walked up next to Ray and stared at the commotion.

"Excuse me," the older gentleman demanded, "but which one of you is Ray?" he asked. The woman stared determinedly at him, hoping he would happily point himself out.

Ray looked around and pointed at himself, "I am, sir." He said hesitantly and Peter looked over his shoulder at the couple.

The woman gasped and pushed Ray's shoulder, "you horrible man!" Her husband stuck his finger in Ray's face, "You're the disgusting man that's been touching my little girl—aren't you?" he growled.

Ray's eyes widened and he looked around, "Excuse me? You're little girl—I've never done such a thing-"

"Yes you have! My darling Linda has been talking about you lately, mentioning you all the time! You must be sleeping with her—Captain! Arrest this man for pure adultery against my daughter!" Larry ordered, shouting to the police. Peter ran to Ray's side.

"What—Linda—she said that?"

"She said nothing, Ray. You're her parents aren't you? _You_ called Peck!" Peter said sternly. Colette stepped away from Peter and behind her husband who just glared at him. Ray's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at the officers who were already hand-cuffing Egon and Winston and were grabbing Peter's arms to cuff him.

"Yes we are…and what you're doing to this city is wrong! We're ashamed that it took us this long to realize it, allowing our Linda to be poisoned by your gasses and make us give up our money! Arrest them!" Larry pointed furiously, stepping away from Ray as the officers cuffed them and threw them into the back of a police van.

Ray looked at the floor of the van and shook his head, "I can't believe this is happening…why would Linda say that I…that I even touched…." he stammered, not wanting to finish his sentence.

Egon shook his head, "She wouldn't do that Ray. She had no idea that her parents had called Peck, and she had no idea that her parents had that idea of you. It isn't your fault."

"And it isn't hers." Winston added. "But now we have to worry about how we're going to convince them that the world is ending…this wasn't in the job description."


	16. All Those Things She Said

**Hiya you guys!**

**Thank you all for your kind words!**

**I feel welcomed back.**

**And by God it's a good feeling, and I plan on basking in it!**

**So for this chapter, I wanted to expand a little more on Linda's parents and Ray's predicament with them, but also popping in to check on Linda as she arrives at Dana's.**

**This is where some comedy, hopefully, will be seen, cause I'm trying to practice writing Peter… cause who doesn't love him?**

**And he cares about Ray very much, so why wouldn't he defend his friend?**

**But yes…I hope that didn't give anything away.**

**And I'm throwing plot and lines into the wind. I don't care WHEN this talk takes place so don't ask about it. Just go with it.**

**Whatever.**

**Read it & **_**REVIEW**_**!**

**That is **_**crucial**_**.**

Her feet were beginning to hurt. That was one of the many things she was thinking about. Her feet hurt, her head hurt, her body ached as a whole, she felt dirty and disgusting, she felt embarrassed, she felt ashamed, and her eyes just wanted to shut and never open. She wanted to sleep, like she did less than an hour before.

The dead eyes in her sockets were looking for Louis and seeing the people on the streets, but she was picturing her parents abrade Ray and his fellow Ghostbusters with questions and insults and stupid reasons for their actions.

The numb ears on either side of her head were listening to distant screams and the car horns screeching and people yelling, but in her head she could hear her own parents speaking to her about all the trouble she had caused. She knew for a fact they would blame her. She hadn't done much, and she never spoke to them a lot, so she knew that they had no reason to do so; but she figured they would.

She was hot on Louis' trail though, despite all of these other factors clouding her judgment and bringing her sprint to a pitiful jog.

"Louis!" she called out to him.

Calling his name wouldn't do anything, she figured, but she kept doing it, just to keep herself occupied as she thought about whether he was actually going to Dana's, or whether this was a stupid chase after a delusional man.

_No. It's not worthless. He's a danger to himself and others. And Ray and the others need him._ She yelled to herself in her head.

"Louis!" she called out again, finding a subtle trail of people staring over their shoulders.

He could've been pushing through them, or he could've just been screaming about the "sign", but it was attracting a long line of attention that lead straight to him. Linda sucked in a breath and held it as she mustered up the strength to catch up to him.

"LOUIS!" she shouted angrily, almost doubling over to the ground.

She tripped on her own two feet and stumbled forward, grabbing onto a street pole. She heard more people yelling and speaking as she laid her temple against the cold metal. "Louis…." She mumbled, her eyes closed. A couple walking past began speaking loudly, talking to one another worriedly.

"That building has a huge hole in it! I hope everyone is okay!"

"I'm sure someone called the police."

Linda coughed and groaned, knowing she had to pry her eyes open now. Her lids slowly opened and her eyes trailed from the rubble on the ground in front of a recognizable front door up to a hole on the side of the recognizable building. She could hear some people yelling about the hole and stuff on the ground. Taxis and other cars had just decided to stop honking and they all just gathered out of their cars. Louis had found his way through the debris and was entering the building.

The hole was even at a recognizable level.

"…Dana." Linda groaned, pushing herself away from the pole and stumbling over the side of the curb. She tripped over herself and fell off the curb and into the street, deciding to just land and lay there. Some passer-bys gasped.

"…My—GOD, this is unnatural." Linda mumbled into her forearm as she used every muscle in her arms to try and get herself to her knees.

"LOUIS." She called out weakly as she put one foot down and then another so she could stand.

"Ma'am, do you need any help?" an older gentleman asked her, stepping off the curb and touching her shoulder. She looked at his hand and then to his face and then gave him a weak smirk.

"You can turn me in _that_ direction and give me a good push." She muttered, pointing to Dana's building. He reluctantly grabbed her shoulders and turned her towards the building and pushed her, making her stumble a few steps forward. "Thank you." She called over her shoulder as she continued the pattern of one foot in front of the other.

There was a low rumble from above them, Linda ignoring all of the gasps and yelps from around her. She didn't even look up. She just ignored it and kept her eyes straight on the front door, seeing Louis trying to figure out the elevator. He scratched at the door until he found a door with a stairway sign on it, in which he pushed through.

She clenched her jaw and picked up her speed, chasing after him and using all of her weight to push the front door open. "Louis!" she yelled as she pushed the stairway door open. The sound reverberated off of every nook of the walls and she let out a groan, remembering what level Dana lived on.

"Damnit." She growled as she saw Louis on the second level already. She shook out her legs and then jumped up the stairs two-by-two, occasionally peering over the railing to look up and see what level he was on.

"All right. Level two," she muttered as she reached that level panting, "just twenty more levels to go." She sighed and traveled on.

* * *

"When I say this, I say this with honesty Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick. I have _never_ in my entire professional life slept with or sexually assaulted a coworker. Especially not your daughter." Ray said, sounding exasperated but as though he was doing his best to stay sane.

The Ghostbusters team sat on either side of each other, with the Sedgwick's sitting at the head of the table. Ray sat next to Peter on the right of the Sedgwick's, sitting closest to them, as they requested. As he explained his side of the story, he used gestures with his hands, forming them into straight lines and tapping the table to emphasize things. His watch would jingle every time.

Colette just shook her head, placing her hand against her forehead tiredly. Larry sat there, glaring at Ray angrily as he explained himself.

"We don't care about your past offenses," Larry began, receiving a collective sigh, everyone slumping in their chairs except for Ray, "all we care about, is what made you think you could get away with this?" he asked sternly, leaning forward in his own chair.

Ray kind of sat back so he could stay further away from the elder man, seemingly frightened of him and his tone. He rubber his lips together as he fiddled with his fingers, his eyes darting around the room.

"I didn't…expect to get away with anything—"

"Aha! A confession!" Colette finally yelled, the Ghostbusters jumping in their seats.

"—because I haven't done anything! I've told you that!" Ray persisted, looking and sounding distressed.

Colette shook her head profusely, "I REFUSE to believe that! My step daughter has shown all the signs of some kind of assault. Looking at you, I can just tell you're a fiend—so it must have been sexual!" she accused, her facts obviously making no sense to any of the other three Ghostbusters.

They each looked at one another with quirked eyebrows, Peter looking like he was itching to put in his two cents. Egon's face said otherwise and Peter knew better than to interrupt. Ray shifted in his seat.

"Mrs. Sedgwick, I have been working with Linda for a couple of weeks now. She has shown no sign of any physical, mental or emotional trauma." He said quietly, trying to bring her down from her high, angry pedestal.

"Oh, how would you know—" she began, but Peter leaned forward.

"Don't worry ma'am. I can vouch for that. You see…I have a Ph.D. in psychology—"

"This is none of your business Dr. Venkman!" Larry shouted, almost standing up out of his chair. Egon shot Peter a look and Peter sat back in his seat.

"Yeah, okay, that's fine. Whatever works for you." He mumbled to himself, laying his hands in his lap.

Larry turned back to Ray and glared at him.

"Get to your point. Just because you haven't seen any trauma doesn't mean it isn't there." He said threateningly.

Ray nodded and leaned forward onto his elbows so he could use his hands to emphasize his words again, "Of course Mr. Sedgwick. But…I can tell that you have raised your daughter right. Your daughter is smart enough to tell someone if she has been insulted, or in this case assaulted, and she would never keep something this serious from someone as important as her parents." He shrugged, trying to sound professional and not as kiss-ass as he seemed.

The Sedgwick's were silent for a moment. Looking to each other and just staring as if they were using telepathy. Colette just gave him one slight shake of the head and Larry was back looking at Ray like he was murderer.

"Unless you threatened her!"

"What?" Ray gaped.

"You must've threatened her! Or poisoned her! With those toxic gasses! The moment you saw my daughter when you set foot in _my_ hotel, you knew she was the perfect target for those inhalants. You knew she was weak!" he accused. Everyone, even possibly the officers watching knew that they were going over the top.

Ray's eyes widened and he shook his head.

"No, no! I would never poison her—I would never poison anyone!" Ray began and this time Egon sat forward.

"Besides, our technology doesn't emit any type of chemical. They're safe as long as they are correctly maintained and frequently cleaned—"

"Which they are! I should know!" Winston added, lifting his pointer finger to catch their attention and then pointing to his chest.

Despite their cut-ins, they could only get a glance from the seething man. His eyes were dead-set on Ray. Colette only recoiled away from the other men closest to her.

"The point is, you knew she was fragile. Isn't it perfect that your first customer happened to be a young woman, naïve to the things around her!" he accused again, making her sound like an innocent little flower.

And Ray was sure to point this out.

"Mr. Sedgwick, you're talking as if she's a child!" he mentioned, looking desperate for a way out; for a way to catch him.

"That's because she is!" he barked. "She is my little girl, and you've corrupted her! You poisoned her mind—along with millions of people in New York—and made her pay you a large sum of money that she shouldn't have paid!"

Peter sat forward, looking around Ray, "Um, excuse me, we deserve that money. And the little lady was happy to oblige." He mentioned.

Colette shook her head, butting in, "Happy to oblige. Oh, right, like our daughter would ever want to pay you heathens _any_ kind of money. Or for that matter any kind of attention! You said it yourself Dr. Stantz, we raised our daughter right, and that right is not to trust people like you." She scoffed.

Peter rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair with a groan as Ray rubbed his temple, "Yes. I did say that." He admitted.

Winston watched Ray carefully and began to shake his head in disappointment, allowing his head to droop tiredly. Larry eyed him for a moment, glaring, and then allowed his eyes to dart back to

Ray.

"You'd have to be blind to not see that something's wrong." He finally mentioned, not knowing what else to say.

Egon quirked a brow and looked between Larry and Colette.

"…And what have you two been seeing?"

"Well..." Colette began hesitantly, "since she hasn't been speaking to us—"

Winston immediately held up his hand.

"Now hold on a minute…you haven't been talking to her? She hasn't _told_ you that Ray has been touching her?" he asked, looking at them skeptically and over exasperated.

Larry seemed to puff up like a puffer fish at Winston's comment and he nodded, "That's why we said that she has been showing signs! Dr. Stantz has been threatening her!" he said again, getting angry. Again.

Winston's head dropped and Egon stared at them blankly as Ray looked like he was about to throw up. Peter sucked in a breath and patted Ray on the back.

"Come on now Ray. Tell them." He said, trying to lighten the mood.

Ray turned his head slowly to look at him, Egon's head not too far behind and Winston's head barely lifting just to get a glimpse of the sarcastic man.

"Tell them what?" he asked.

"Tell them you haven't been threatening her!"

"But—I did! I haven't been threatening Linda! I would _never_ do that." He emphasized.

Peter patted Ray's shoulder again, this time a little harder as he chuckled.

"Yeah. Ray here doesn't need to threaten women to get them to sleep with him! He's a total babe magnet. I mean, look at that hair. Woman would do for that do." He said, gesturing to Ray. Ray's eyes widened and he began to turn red, sitting up straight in his seat as Colette let out a horrified gasp.

"Venkman!" Egon growled as Winston grumbled Peter's name under his breath in a disapproving manner.

Colette started poking her husband, trying to get him to snap out of his sudden trance, mesmerized by Peter's words.

"Now. Before you both get too butt hurt over this, I want you to know that I'm not saying that your daughter slept with Ray, I'm just saying that if she wanted to, she wouldn't use an excuse such us _chemicals_ to do it." Peter explained.

Egon shook his head slightly, trying to clear it, and piped up to fix up the situation, "And you said she never told you that they were sleeping together—let alone Ray touching her in any inappropriate way. In my honest opinion, and anyone else's, you can't just assume what your daughter is thinking. Besides, your daughter is a smart woman. She knows what's right and wrong in the work place." He said matter-of-factly, looking to them for some sign of reaction.

"Linda's only a friend!" Ray added, making sure he wasn't going to allow himself to get drowned out. Larry glared at him.

Peter wrapped his arm around Ray's shoulder, "Yeah! And doesn't get a lot of female friends! And he hasn't slept with any woman before! …Just puttin' that out there." Peter mumbled the last line. Ray nervously nodded, looking from Peter to the Sedgwicks.

"Th—thank you Peter." He muttered, turning red from embarrassment. "Yeah! So she was my first!" he shrugged, smiling at them.

Before they had any time to react, Ray's eyes widened, "First female friend! My first female friend!" he said quickly, suddenly moaning and running his hands through his hair.

Egon sucked in a breath, "The point is, is that Ray is only good friends with Linda." He said bluntly. Larry glared at Egon and then at Ray again.

"It isn't professional."

"…friendship?" Ray asked quietly, the line reminding him of what Egon had said before and Larry rolled his eyes.

"No! Sleeping with your Boss! It's unprofessional! Which is why we disapprove!" Colette yelled, beating her husband to the punch.

"But I didn't—ugh!" Ray began but gave up and slammed his head down on the table. Peter patted his back.

"Don't get so down trodden, Ray. They obviously don't understand that women and men can be friends in the workplace." He said haughtily, lifting his nose slightly in the air to subtly mock them.

Egon just sat there rubbing his forehead. Winston shifted in his seat.

"Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick, if I could just speak for Ray for a moment." He said, waiting for Larry to give him eye contact and a nod. "Thank you. Well, Ray is right. He and Linda are only friends, and he would never do anything to jeopardize you—her family—or any part of her life or physical being. What he's trying to say is, is that he has never touched your daughter in that way and he has never made any sort of advance that has made her uncomfortable. He would never do that…to a friend." He explained, speaking quietly and tranquilly, adding that last part for affect, and using the cliché pause.

For a moment, everyone was silent. Ray had slowly lifted his head up from the table, Peter had turned to look at Egon with raised brows, and Egon had done the same, and the Sedgwick's looked at Winston as though he was an angel guiding them down a path. Larry opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, looking distraught and somewhat confused.

"B—But…my little girl has spoken to our son about things…. Once after we got home from the Bahamas." He muttered.

Winston's brows furrowed.

"Like what?" he asked, looking at Ray who was looking a bit nervous.

"Like…she always mentions him—you!" he stammered, pointing to Ray.

Ray lifted his hand to his heart, "Me?" he muttered.

He nodded, holding back a glare, "Our son Tony would ask her about work, knowing she would rather talk to him than us. She would just go gushing on about how wonderful you all are and how much fun the job is." He scoffed, thinking it was all a joke.

"A work of your chemicals." Colette quietly added, allowing the Ghostbusters to roll their eyes. Except for Ray, who was listening intently.

"She would talk about all of you. Like you, Dr. Venkman," he began his rant, pointing at Peter, "She would say, 'Oh he's so funny. He really knows how to cheer someone up'." He pointed to Winston, "And Mr. Zeddemore, 'He's so kind. He has no idea what he's doing, but he has fun doing it, and he's such a good sport. He's good to talk to'." He pointed to Egon, "And Dr. Spengler, 'He's so quiet but he's so dedicated. Always doing tests. Always working. He really knows what he's doing'." He said, mocking Linda's voice. All of them couldn't help but chuckle.

Finally he pointed to Ray, "And YOU Dr. Stantz…don't even get me started, 'He's such a sweetie. He's always so nice to me and so shy, but he loves what he does and he gets so exciting! Such a gentleman! It makes me happy that he's happy, and it'd be fun to get to know him and he makes me feel comfortable and he's not like other guys that I've met' and BLAH blah BLAH blah BLAH." He said, lifting up his hand to mock a mouth moving, continuing to mock his own daughter. Slowly Ray began to smile and he looked back at Egon who just pressed his lips together, feeling melancholy.

Peter saw Ray's expression and couldn't help but smirk.

"And I must warn you," Larry began again, catching them off guard as he slammed his hand on the table, "that we will still be pressing charges."

Winston's eyes widened, "WHAT? Why?"

"Because. I still believe he has done something to my little girl…and even if he hasn't, you've still been using those chemicals to poison and corrupt the minds of the residents of this city! Walter Peck will be seeing to it that you're all put away for harming the social, economical and the natural environment. We will call in Peck for him to deal with you." He shrugged, standing up, allowing Colette to wrap her arm around his.

They turned towards the door and Peter began to shake his head.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, NO!" he said sternly, standing up and wagging his finger. "Don't even THINK about leaving until we get this resolved. We're not letting you leave until you agree that the adultery charges will be dropped! Ray is _innocent_." He said, pointing down at Ray.

The group looked at the couple determinedly, the couple staring back in boredom. Winston stood up.

"He's right. Ray is innocent. We won't be tolerating that charge." He said professionally, folding his hands in front of him.

Egon then stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "I also agree. The charge is unorthodox and based on assumptions, not facts."

Larry glared at every face, mainly Ray's; Colette gave them all the twitch of her lip and the rise of her brow.

Slowly Ray stood up, looking at all of his friends. He looked at the couple with a soft smile and a hopeful face, "Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick?" he asked.

Larry quirked a brow, "Hm?"

"You…you can keep the charge." He shrugged. Egon looked at him like he was something not of this world that he had yet to discover, Winston looked at him like he was crazy and Peter just turned away, looking annoyed.

"But—" Ray began again, causing Peter to spin back and look at him.

"You must promise me…that when we find Linda…after all this commotion is done…we can sort this all out…. Like adults." He said slowly.

Larry pressed his lips together and began to open them when, yet again, Colette interrupted.

"That's sounds perfect. We can do that, can't we Larry?" she asked, looking up at him. Her husband pressed his lips together again and shut his eyes. He nodded and bitterly smiled at Ray.

"That works just fine." He said through gritted teeth.

Ray nodded and smiled, "Thank you."

The Sedgwick's made their slow exit, whispering to one another.

"What a handful." Winston sighed, slumping down into his seat.

Ray sat down, looking somewhat relieved. Peter smirked and patted Ray's shoulder.

"Happy it's done?"

"Oh, definitely…. But did you hear all the things she said about me?" he said, grinning and looking at Peter like he was a confessional booth. Peter let out a laugh and smiled at his friend, patting his shoulder again and looking at Egon who smirked.

Before the boys had time to settle down, a man in blue came in and knocked on the door to get their attention.

"All right boys. Interview is over. Time to move to your cell." He instructed, pointing out the door.

* * *

Linda finally wheezed her way to level twenty-two. She pushed open the door to see Louis standing in the middle of the hallway looking at all of the doors individually. She sighed in relief and did her best to jog to him.

"Louis—Vinz…don't run off like that." She laughed, grabbing his shoulder and smiling. He looked at her and smiled and continued to sniff a door. She sighed again and let her shoulders slump as she examined the ruined hallway.

Louis' doorway had been smashed and pieces of it and the wall were littered all over the hallway. She covered her nose at the sudden odor that had hit her. A smell of something between burnt wood and rubber, something foul she couldn't identify and some burnt food. Nothing else. She stepped over pieces of wall and rubble and took a look at Dana's door.

It was burnt along the edges, and there was a large truck sized hole in the wall next to it. She gasped and jogged over to it, reaching out to hesitantly touch it. The door wasn't hot or cold, it was just, still, a door. Louis stumbled over to her and smelt all of the debris littered across that part of the floor.

Carefully, Linda took one step to the right and peeked in, not seeing anyone. She didn't really know what to do at that point.

_Oh God… this is going to be so stupid._ She thought to herself as an idea ran across her mind. She lifted her fist and knocked on the door.

The door swung open and there was Dana, draped over her single armchair. Her head lifted up from it's laid back post and she stared at Linda.

The look in her eyes was not Dana's, and it scared her. Seeing her friends face, but not her friends eyes or her friends emotions or worries or expressions. Just a lifeless, possessed, demi-godded woman. Who looks like her best friend.

"…Dana?" Linda called out.

"Are you the Keymaster?" she asked, her voice haunting.

"…Um…no." she shrugged, looking around awkwardly.

Immediately, the door slammed in her face. She yelped and jumped back, almost tripping over rubble.

"Well—I—huh?" she grumbled to herself, looking around the hallway, not noticing Louis stumble up to the door.

It swung open and he didn't even touch it. The moment it was open he quickly said, "I am the Keymaster."

"And I am the Gatekeeper." Dana replied sensually.

Linda spun around just in time to see Dana and Louis embrace in a passionate kiss. She gasped and covered her eyes, peeking at them, looking a little disgusted.

"That's not good." She winced as they then proceeded to walk up the stairs to the roof.

"Dammit." She grumbled as they disappeared from sight. She began jumping and leaping over pieces of wall and door and furniture to get to the stairs.

"I am _so_ fired for _all_ of this." She winced, looking up at the glowing roof.

She was in for a treat, and she knew it.


	17. You're Not Like Any Other Guy!

**WHOA! What's that? A new chapter? The first on in FIVE MONTHS?**

**Oh hai.**

**I saw all of your reviews about Linda's parents. XD**

**They ARE quite despicable.**

**But I say Ray handled it well, seeing as how his stress level was at an all-time high.**

**SUPER long chapter this time!**

**Hope you enjoy sibling bonding!**

**Read & _REVIEW_!**

_Why did I let him go inside? WHY did I let him go inside? _Linda growled internally as she jumped up to the stairs to the roof of the apartment complex.

Already, before she had even gotten outside, she could tell through the cracks of the door that there was some kind of light. A bright light that didn't seem welcoming at the end of a quick hallway that seemed to go on for eternity. Like the green mile. The light itself was so bright, it was completely white, and blurred the edges of the doorway. She squinted at it and covered her eyes, grimacing.

One foot after another, she slowly stepped one stair closer and closer to the door, almost tripping on each step. With her free hand, she clutched onto her dress, wrinkling it between her sweaty fingers. She was now level with the door, getting closer and closer before she stopped a foot away from it, just glaring at it. Her eyes traveled down to the very bottom crack, staring at it as it shined on her feet, ankles, and calves, illuminating and heating them. Her body trembled as she glared at the intangible source.

The nervous eyes trailed up to the handle, staring at it intensively. She didn't want to touch it. Like it would electrocute her, or open up a whole new world of hurt and problems for her. The moment she opened the door, Mozart's Requiem in D Minor would start playing in her head and she would get more depressed and know that her ending was coming.

But she mustn't think of that. Her best friend and her friend's neighbor were behind that door (hopefully) and she was going to (hopefully) save them.

With a flick of her wrist, her hand shot out and grabbed the door handle, twisting with all her might. The door flew open, into the building, like it was pushed by wind, almost smacking her; she had to jump back to avoid it. And that was the worst she had to worry about.

Nothing was blinding her. The light was gone, if there even was a light. The door had opened to the roof, just like she had expected, but it opened to a regularly, day lit roof. It had grown slightly darker, like an hour or two had passed, which was impossible, but it wasn't abnormally bright or white. She was overly confused now. She jumped through the doorway, standing still, waiting for something to happen. She looked back at the door, like the answer would be there. But nothing.

_I guess this comes with the job_. She thought, letting her arms drop limply to her side, allowing her eyes to wander around the roof.

Stone, cement and cinderblock surrounded her; to her right was just a large cinderblock wall. To her left was a tall stonewall that only reached so high until it led to open air. Straight in front of her were a few steps that must've led to the more open area of the roof. Carefully and cautiously, she advanced towards the steps, looking all around her. Nothing was making any sudden movements or making any weird noises, so she felt safer than she did inside the building. The wide-open space actually made her feel less vulnerable than before.

"Dana? Louis?" she called hesitantly, running her fingers along the stonewall, feeling the bumpy surface like she could grab hold of it. There was no answer.

Making it to the top, she looked across the vast stone surface of a large platform. The edges were decorated in rectangles and rhombuses, to give the building a medieval feel, looking nice to the eye of an onlooker. Maybe if they were in a helicopter. Her foot carefully stepped forward, rolling from her heels to her toes until it was flat. To her left was pure open air, looking out into the sky of New York. She didn't know whether the eerie darkness of the mid-day sky was because of how high up they were, or because of something more unknown to the city than the Ghostbusters.

A large stone bench was elevated towards the edge, like someone large and godly was to sit there. _More crazy architecture_, Linda thought indignantly.

Looking to her right, she found a large stonewall, blank, with no carvings or stone decorations. The only decorations were along the sides, like it was an art frame for a beautiful picture that was supposed to be painted on the blank piece of canvas. At the bottom though, stood Dana and Louis, Dana in her orange, fluid dress, and Louis with his tousled hair and shirt, both looking a little disheveled.

Linda gasped and stepped forward, "Dana!"

Neither of them looked to her.

"Dana we need to go find Peter! He can help you! He can help _Zuul_! And Vinz as well!" She said as the two of them, with heads rotating as slowly as a hand on a clock, turned to look at her. Their looks of pure ecstasy and annoyance scared her. They seemed to have been enjoying themselves, just staring at one another in front of the wall. She had seemingly interrupted a "romantic" moment.

Reluctantly, Linda took a step back. Dana and Louis, with their eyes fixated on her, began to move away from the wall, turning in the direction of the bench just across the way. Linda stared between them and their destination like they were about to walk into the wicked witches candy cottage to get eaten. Thinking like that should've made her move forward, to make them stop, but they had no longer decided to pay attention to her.

Their full intent was to make it to the bench now, forgetting about Linda's interruption, about taking them to safety. It seems that their safety was there.

Just as Linda had felt before, a sudden rush of invulnerability washed over her; the feeling of being out in the open had changed from when she was inside, in a confined space. Something seemed to protect where she was, instead of leaving her out to be defenseless and weak. The air seemed thick, like she was walking through jelly or Vaseline.

The looming feeling of being tired waved over her again suddenly. She had addressed how tired she was the entire time she had been running around the city or running up the steps, almost harming herself in the process. Her fatigue was getting her nowhere, and the dense air surrounding her wasn't making it any better. In fact, it made it worse, making her eyes droop, like she was in a bed, ready to fall asleep. But she thought to herself, _I can't sleep. Not now. Not when I have a job to do. My best friend to save._

Furiously, she shook her head, her hair whipping her in the face as a slight breeze blew past. Dizzily, she darted her eyes around the roof, desperately trying to find the bench through her hazy vision. Finding it, after a moment of searching she found Louis and Dana atop one another, stroking each other sensually, looking ready to devour one another. With a gasp and a yelp, Linda actually took a step back, shocked by what she saw.

Turning to jump down the stairs, she covered her eyes to look away from a site. Why it had bothered her, she didn't know, but it was something she wasn't in the mood to deal with, or at least get in the middle of. She would let them go about their business before taking them to Peter. If he was okay that is.

After a moment of waiting to land on a step, any step, she opened her eyes and looked down. Her toe was vertical, pointing to the step she was supposed to land on, but she was nowhere near touching it. Instead, she floated above it, like someone was holding her up. Her hair and dress drifted up around her, like she was hovering over an air vent.

Wildly, she kicked at the air, like she was going to magically kick a leaver that would shoot her back to the ground so she could go and find some help or at least hide down by the door.

_Wait_, she thought, _I'm floating_.

A force she couldn't feel began to pull her away from the stairs.

"What the hell—what the hell is this! Put me down! Let me down! What is this—let me go!" she cried out, afraid of what could be holding her. She couldn't see anything and right now, her terror was building up into horror. She had never dreamed of being picked up by something she couldn't see.

"Why do they do this kind of thing?" she called out, directing the subject of the question towards the Ghostbusters.

Linda's eyes drooped as she gave one final kick. Something was putting her to sleep, like it was trying to before. The blanket of air warmed itself up, pulling her through the air. Her body went limp as she felt as thought a million hands were pushing on her back, surfing her towards the bench. Dana and Louis were rolling around with one another, paying no attention to the floating body coming their way; and they paid no mind when she was gently laid under the large bench.

Before her eyes fully closed, Linda looked out across the rooftop, picking out every little pebble that stuck out from the surface, trying to focus on something to keep her awake. But nothing worked. Light began to shine from the cracks of the stonewall across from her, and that was enough to finally put her to sleep.

To shut her eyes, and to put her in her dreams.

When the blackness encompassed her, leaving her with a warm feeling, but a cold breeze, the first face she saw was Tony's. Her little brother Tony. The broken Tony. He sat on the couch, reading a magazine in their hotel suite, a week or so after he had arrived back from the Bahamas. She had exited from her room to find him sulking, like he had done since he and his parents had come home.

Like she had remembered, Linda rubbed her hands together, looking around awkwardly. She stepped towards him, wondering why this dream was so déjà vu. When he looked up at her and smirked, she remembered.

This was when she talked to him about the Ghostbusters. When she had told him about how she wasn't talking to her Father or Step-Mom. At least not at that moment.

"Can I sit here?" she asked, trying not to sound too timid, pointing at the spot next to him on the crisp white couch. He looked at the spot and nodded approvingly, looking back to his magazine. Smoothing out her jeans, she sat down, trying to appear lady-like in her casual attire for that day.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked, flipping a page in the magazine. She folded her hands in her lap and gazed at him, smiling sweetly.

"Can't a girl sit on her couch with her brother peacefully? Quietly?"

"With what's been going on in our lives? No."

With a big, heaving sigh, Linda's back slumped and she fell back into the couch, molding herself into its form until she looked like a true couch potato, "Tell me about it" she grumbled.

He turned to her, his eyes looking at her with curiosity. He scanned her quickly, head to toe, toe to head before looking her in the eye, "So where are you working right now that requires this… "unprofessional" attire?" he asked.

Tiredly, she blinked and looked up at him, pressing her lips together, "You heard Colette say that, didn't you."

"Couldn't help but hear it when she's whined to me about it for the past week. Now where are you working?"

She sighed, "With the Ghostbusters."

Tony furrowed his brows, "You mean the "Who you gonna call" guys? You're working for them?"

A nervous smile crept across her face and she nodded, "Yes those guys. I decided to work with them when they came to take care of a ghost problem in the hotel."

"We had a ghost problem?" he asked, skeptically.

"Key word is HAD. They do a lot of amazing things, Tony." She smiled.

"When you've got a job like catching ghosts, I can't help but agree."

There was silence between them. For the first time in a long time, this was their first real talk. One that lasted longer than a hello, how are you, goodbye. They were actually keeping conversation. She turned to look at her younger half brother, noticing their similarities and differences, in hair, eyes, over all demeanors; and especially in his mood. With her closest hand, she placed it on his knee and rubbed it.

"Are you holding up okay?"

He looked down at her and smirked, "Yeah I'm doing just fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure Linda." He said, slightly annoyed. His tone set her off.

"Hey, I'm just looking out for you! You're my little brother and the fact that you got stood up like that by some stupid little scumbag pisses me off. And it doesn't help that I wasn't there to support you when you got married, and to help you when she drop kicked you to the honeymoon suite!" she defensively, suddenly sitting up in her seat. She leaned on the back of the couch and pointed at him, giving him a look of unappreciation. She wasn't going to tolerate his sudden attitude.

And he wasn't going to tolerate hers either, "Please, don't even start this Linda! Seriously, I don't need you trying to act like you care! I heard what you told mom and dad, about her probably being some slut!"

"I never said anything like that! You _would_ believe dad and Colette—putting words in my mouth! I'd hoped that you would realize that they aren't exactly the trustworthiest people! Especially not when it comes to us. That's why I don't talk to them anymore…." She huffed, trying not to raise her voice as he threw the magazine onto the glass coffee table and stood up, turning away angrily. He took what she said into mind, but asked no questions.

Crossing her legs, Linda fixed her shirt and looked up at him, "We don't always get along. I know that. We've had our differences, and we've had our opinions. But I swear to God that I never said anything like that…until you got home."

His dagger eyes glared at her and she lifted her hands, "I had every right her to call her what she is! She stood you up on your own honey-moon."

Putting them back in their holders, his dagger eyes slowly softened and he sat back down, rubbing his legs aggressively, like he was cold. He let out a sigh and made no attempt to look at his half-sister. Saddened by his silence, Linda trailed her eyes down to the floor, afraid to say anything. He lay back into the couch, looking up at the ceiling in thought.

"…So the Ghostbusters. Are they cool?"

She looked to him and smiled, "Yeah, they are. They're really nice."

"They seem kind of obnoxious and cheesy."

"That's only because of the commercials. They aren't very good actors."

Tiredly, he slumped his head in her direction and pressed his lips together, "Do they let you help catch ghosts and stuff?"

"No, they let me do paper work and figure out if they're over pricing things. They get a lot of business and they kind of need someone who's good with money."

"But you hate math."

"That doesn't mean anything." She said rather hastily. "Besides, they don't know that."

Tony sat up, quirking a brow and shifting himself to sit up comfortably, "Wait…you don't like doing things you don't like to do…does that make sense? Yes. Okay. Why would you still be working with them if all your doing is paper work and math?"

"Well…I like…working with them. Their paper work isn't so bad." She shrugged, crossing her arms. He smirked and narrowed his eyes at her dangerously.

"Oh, right. Why are you still working with them?"

"…Because I like working with them more than with Dad and Colette?"

"…I'll believe that. Anything else?"

Cautiously she looked at him and pursed her lips, contemplating telling her distant little brother about her schoolgirl crush. But why shouldn't she tell him about the ever charming, forever dorky Ray Stantz who has just so happened to have sucked her heart into a black hole full of nothing but thoughts of ghosts, ghouls and poltergeists. She dreamed of worlds that she would be stuck in so he would have to go and save her. They always lived happily ever after in the end.

Shifting herself, she turned to face him until she knocked knees with him, being close enough to whisper, unsure about the whereabouts of her parents. She looked him dead in the eye and folded her hands in her lap.

"Well, one of them, Ray Stantz, he—"

"Oh, you're getting it on with one of them, aren't you?" he laughed obnoxiously. Linda threatened to raise her hand high, prepared to smack him senseless, but refrained from even letting her hand twitched.

"No, Tony. I am not 'getting it on' with one of the Ghostbusters."

"Then you have a crush on one of them?"

"…Maybe."

"Oh you do. That's so cute." He teased, acting as girly as possible, as if they were schoolgirls. Finally Linda lifted her hand and smacked him across the arm, "Shut up!" she whined like they were children.

"Ow! So which one is it!" he growled, rubbing his arm.

"I already told you, Ray Stantz!" she said, exasperated.

"Which one is that?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"The one with the poofy hair? And the puppy-dog eyes? Kind of chubby and adorable?"

"Oh yeah, you definitely like him." He laughed and she pressed her lips together, trying not to grin stupidly. She began to turn pink and she looked down at her hands.

Tony sucked in a breath and patted her hand, "Well—as a professional, I should say that you shouldn't let your personal life get in the way of work. But, I've never followed that rule. So. Either get in his pants or quit immediately."

"Tony!" Linda shrieked, finally letting herself grin. Even though his words would normally make her furious, she couldn't be mad at him. He even grinned, pulling her into a wild hug, messing up her hair.

Both of their laughing became distant as if it was getting further and further away. It seemed that her vision became tunneled, and the picture of her and Tony wrestling blurred into a picture of her and Tony sitting down in the bar of the hotel, not drinking, just talking. Linda remembered this scene as well, being only a few days later when her father and Colette had _just_ realized she wasn't talking to them. But they knew she was talking to Tony.

"So!" Tony's voice rang out in her head, sounding like he was speaking through a pipe. "How's it going with Ray?"

His voice was now loud and clear, blasting through her ears as if he was speaking into a microphone. Silence filled her head as she had paused before answering in the quiet, empty bar.

"It's going…okay…I guess."

"Have you told him about your essay yet?"

"I'm going to! I thought it would be cool to invite him to go with me to one of the excavation sights! But hse might've heard it in passing. I was talking to Winston about it yesterday…he thought it was really cool."

"Winston's the black one, right?" he asked, swiveling around in his hair, flipping his light hair out of his eyes. Linda couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes, he is. And Peter's the loud one, and Egon's the quiet, smart one."

"And Ray is just the cutest!" Tony mocked and she laughed, shaking her head. She had gotten over hitting him when he teased her.

"Yes, yes he is." She agreed, looking up into the mirror behind all of the bottle of liquor. She stared at a reflection of herself and Tony, but standing behind her was none other than herself. She was watching herself. Spinning in her chair, she turned and looked behind her, puzzled, at the still empty bar, no copy of herself in sight.

Tony began to nod, "Will I ever begin to meet any of them?"

"…Probably not." She hesitated, "They don't get out very often. They're consumed by work."

"And yet you have flexible hours." He joked. She nodded.

"Pretty much. But they're pretty easy to get to know, even if you don't meet 'em."

Tony turned his chair to face her, resting his elbow on the slightly wet bar. "Tell me about them." He said with a quirked brow.

"Hm. Well. Peter's kind of loud, and sarcastic, like he doesn't really ever know when to shut up. He's really funny too, though sometimes when he talks to me I can't tell if he's being sincere or sarcastic. They both kind of sound the same. Winston, as you know, is the one I talk to a lot. He always makes sure to say hi to me when he comes in. I don't really think he knows what he's doing when he works with them, but he seems to have fun, I guess. And Egon! Egon seems like a sweetie! He doesn't talk to me a lot, but he's really smart! He's always doing these tests, and he's always super quiet! He seems really dedicated."

Her brother only nodded as she spoke, explaining all of her amazing co-workers, using emphasis on the descriptions she found most fitting to each. The entire time, she was looking him in the eye, not having a doubt in her mind that she knew them enough to explain them perfectly.

"And Ray—"

"I know, I know. He's so amazing! He's kind of shy and he's so nice to me! And he loves what he does, and I love how he gets so excited by his job! He's not like any other guy that I've ever met, blah blah blah!"

"Well he's not!" Linda laughed, shrugging like it wasn't a big deal.

His laugh echoed throughout the room as she pouted and turned away, just in time for her father and Colette to walk in unnoticed.

"He really is amazing Tony. I'm not kidding. He's just…special, you know? How did you feel when you met that girl in the Bahamas?"

Tony turned the back of his stool towards the bar and looked out across the dark room, leaning diligently on the edge of the counter. He squinted, deep in thought as he processed her question, "The girl from the Bahamas…I felt…like I could walk on air."

"Exactly," she said, poking him in the shoulder. "He gives me butterflies, Tony. Just the slightest look, even a hint of a glance from him and my stomach goes bonkers. I have _never_ felt like that before. Ever." She said, becoming quiet as she lay her head down on her forearms, leaning on the top of the bar.

Immediately, they heard a scoff.

"No matter how many times we tell you how unprofessional your little infatuation is, you still talk about it like it means something." Colette laughed, walking over to them. Linda's father followed behind his wife and leaned on the bar, motioning for the lazy bar tender to come over and make him a glass of scotch.

Linda only looked up for a split second, catching a glance of the two superior figures. When she felt Colette's glare, she lifted her head and kept her eyes fixated on the colorful bottles that lined the wall. Tony looked at his birth mother and smiled awkwardly, "Hi mom."

"Hi my baby." She cooed, walking up and kissing his cheek tenderly. Tony glanced over at Linda, watching his half-sister sit there uncomfortably.

"So we're off to a business dinner, your father and I. We'll be back whenever. And we suggest that you stop talking about those little Ghostbusters when we're around." She smiled innocently, patting her son's shoulder, looking him in the eye, but directing it at Linda. Tony pressed his lips together and nodded.

"Okay mom. We didn't know you were here." He said monotonously.

"That's alright, we forgive you. Now, do as your told. Never speak of them again."

Tony rolled his eyes, "Ma, they do a lot of nice things for the city. Give us a break, they're the talk of the town."

"That doesn't matter! Now stop this nonsense; you have no need to get yourself affiliated with Linda's crowd. Your father and I must get to that business dinner! We have a _very_ important investor meeting us. Walk us to the car, dear."

Colette spun on her heels and pulled her husband by the collar out the door. Tony stood up out of his chair and glared at the back of their heads, swearing under his breath. He pulled at his coat, frustrated, slipping it on.

"Your crowd—puh." He scoffed, turning to Linda, putting his hand on her arm, "What do they mean, your crowd. Linda, they don't know what they're talking about—"

Not looking at him, she touched his hand, "Tony. You remember why we're called half brother and sister, right?"

Confused, Tony squinted at her rather worried.

"…Because…two halves make a whole." She muttered, like she was reassuring herself of their unity.

Tony's eyes softened and he squeezed her arm, leaning in to kiss her temple, "I have your back, because two halves _do_ make a whole. Gotta go. Love you."

Once his lips pulled away from her temple, her vision began to swirl, tearing at Tony's face as it tried to focus on it; the warm smile he was giving her, the saddened look he was directing at her. The vision seemed to gain claw-marks, ripping at the picture of Tony's face. It began to sputter, like some old movie reel and careened out of control until all she could see was white.

Floating in an abyss, she tried to turn all around, to find something, anything to give a sign of life. But all there was was white.

FLASH.

Tony's face flickers in her head, followed by the faces of her dad, her step-mom, Winston, Peter, Egon and finally Ray. His face engraved in the white after she saw it, his eyes glaring into her, seeming demonic.

GHOOOOSSTBUSSSSTERRRRSSSS

The word reverberated through her head and pounded at her ears as their faces flashed by again, over and over like a slideshow, each picture becoming darker and darker. Red began to splatter across them, with pictures of New York turning black and burnt inserting itself in between their gloomy faces. Again, the last of the faces, Ray, grinned at her. His brows were turned down, his teeth bared revealing fangs and red eyes.

_YOUR WORLD WILL CHOOSE AND PERISH. IT WILL DESTROY ALL IN ITSELF_.

Linda threw her head back, astonished by the voice coming from Ray's mouth. She screamed, trying to block it out as it continued.

_THE POWER OF GOZER OVER POWERS THE WEAK. BOW DOWN TO MY GLORY AND WISDOM. LET YOURSELF BECOME MY POWER_.

She thrashed again, feeling something rip at her clothing, like claws were beginning to let go of her, set her free.

_TRY AND ESCAPE, IT IS ALL FUTILE WEAK MORTAL_. The voice laughed.

With one final pull, Linda began to fall, out of the grasp of the invisible force, falling through the white. She screamed as the wind blew through her hair and through her torn up dress, which she could now see. Cuts and slashes were indented in her sweater and cloth, seeping blood through the edges, like she had been hurt.

As she inhaled to continue her blood-curtling scream, she blinked. That blink woke her up. Her screaming had been happening in reality, and she shot up the moment she saw concrete instead of white. She sat up, fast, slamming her head into the underbelly of the bench. Her hands flew up to her forehead and she began to roll around in pain, still slightly screaming, now beginning to sob. She opened her eyes, looking down at her dress, finding blood stains all over it, including the slashes.

She screamed again, pulling at the clothing, beginning to feel it burning her skin on her legs. She rolled out from under the bench and pulled at the ripping cloth on her body, hoping the burning would stop. Her dress was thrown into a heap in the middle of the rooftop and she rubbed her hands all along her body frantically, finding no cuts in her thin under slip.

No cuts, no burns, no harm was done. She sat there shaking, her breaths coming out in bursts of sobs. She rubbed her arms and as brought her knees up to her chest and lay down weakly.

_What just happened_? She thought.

A familiar bright light began to shine in her face. With tired, swollen eyes, she squinted into the light coming from big stonewall. She sat up, pushing herself onto her knees as her jaw dropped open, wind blowing through her hair and up her skin.

"…Oh no…." she murmured.

Sirens below indicated to the people lined along the streets that the Ghostbusters had arrived. They had been released from jail and followed by a group of protection to the apartments.

"Welcome to my lovely ladies home, boys!" Peter shouted as they all stepped out of the Ecto-Mobile.

They all smiled nervously and looked up at the building. Standing not too far from them, was Linda's parent, huddled together, staring up at the top of the building where a light was beginning to form, brightening the sky. They looked frightened and worried, making Ray feel worse.

Egon grabbed Ray's shoulder and shook it to make him feel better.

Through the crowd behind them, a man pushed through the people, trying to get up to the front of the line. An officer stopped him immediately, demanding to know who he was. The man only jumped up and down, looking for his parents, pointing at the huddled old couple. Hesitantly, the officer examined him before finally letting him through.

The man thanked him and hurdled over the police line, sprinting to his parents. From the corner of Ray's eye, he could see the man running up to the couple, getting their attention and hugging them. The man turned his attention to the building, staring at it like it was the last thing he was going to see before dying. Like _he_ was going to go in there and save the day. But once he had finished looking sorrowfully at the building, he turned his attention to the Ghostbsuters.

Egon's grip tightened on Ray's shoulder as the man ran at them. An officer jumped in front of him.

"HOLD IT KID!"

"NO—GHOSTBUSTERS! YOU'RE THE GHOSTBUSTERS!"

Peter looked at him awkwardly, "Why yes we are. Thank you for noticing."

"Oh—you must be Peter! A—and your Winston, and your Egon! Which makes you Ray!" he said, looking like he had just found God. He looked so relieved he looked like he was about to bawl; he was panting like a dog.

Ray nodded, "Yes sir." He looked at the officer and slowly nodded to him, allowing him to let the man go.

"Thank you so much. My name is Tony, sir! I've heard so much about all of you from my sister! Such great and amazing things!"

The wind started to blow around them, whipping their hair around their heads. Tony looked up at the top of the building again before looking to Ray who looked at him in surprise. It was Linda's brother. Tony pointed up, squinting.

"My sisters up their isn't she?" he called over a sudden boom of thunder and lightening.

Ray looked up and began to nod, "We think so."

Tony swallowed down bile that crept up his throat, "…you're going to get her down safe, right?"

"…Of course." Ray said, looking at him sincerely.

"Good. Because—she's the half that completes my whole! And if you don't—you're dead! You got that?" Tony said, pointing at him threateningly, but his shaking voice gave away his fear and uneasiness.

Ray smiled and patted his shoulder, "I got it. I'll do everything I can! I promise."

Tony began to smile, the wind blowing past them again, "My sister was right about you! You're not like any other guy she's met! I'm counting on you!"

The sky began to rumble, and all of the Ghostbusters looked up to the roof as Tony slipped back to his parents. Ray glared determinedly up into the sky and sucked in a breath.

"I think we're gonna have to put a little over time in on this one!"


End file.
